Today, March 14 at the South East European University in Tetovo, the Secretariat for European Affairs in cooperation with the National Agency for European Educational Programmes and Mobility, held a presentation on Union programs, namely the programme - "Erasmus +".

Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Besimi PhD, the Director of the Agency for European Education Programmes Mr. Darko Dimitrov as well as the Vice Rector for International Cooperation of the University, Blerim Reka PhD had their address at the opening.

At the beginning of his lecture, Deputy Prime Minister Besimi stressed that the Union programmes represent an integrated set of activities adopted by the EU in order to increase the cooperation between the Member States and the European countries that are not members in order to become better acquainted with the methods and policies of the EU and thus to enable exchange of experiences and good practices.

The Republic of Macedonia was part of the Union programmes in the period of 2007-2013, the participation of the Republic of Macedonia in the Union programmes 2014-2020 area reasonable continuation.
The Union programmes represent an open door to additional EU funds and opportunities that are much higher than the national IPA package of about 664 million Euro.

For the Union programmes (2007-2013) is paid an entry ticket of about 11.3 million Euro, out of which about 8 million of the IPA funds, and about 3 million Eurofrom the state budget.
Our institutions and organisations as project coordinators, partners or only beneficiaries have used about 21.5 million Euro in about 800 projects in various areas.

With the commitment of the Secretariat for European Affairs, the Republic of Macedonia, beside Erasmus + has so far signed Agreements for accession to the following programmes: Creative Europe- Culture, Creative Europe- Mediam COSME, Fiskalis, Customs, Europe for Citizens, Employment and Social Innovation Programme and Civil Protection Mechanism.
In 2015 under these instruments are approved 166 projects: 20 Horizon 2020, 7 Europe for Citizens, 86 ERASMUS+, 1 Cosme, 10 Creative Europe- Culture, 23 Fiscalis and 21 Customs, informed Besimi.

For illustration, in 2015 under the Erasmus + programme in the Republic of Macedonia were approved 86 projects amounting to 4,298,917.00 Euro while in 2016 the amount of funds allocated to the programme Erasmus + for the Republic of Macedonia is higher and will amount to about 5,000. 000,00 Euro, students, teachers, professors, trainers and other staff involved in any part of the educational process as well as companies, associations, foundations can apply.

During the lecture Deputy Prime Minister Besimi underlined that - Erasmus + makes a key contribution to education, training, mobility and informal learning of young people are key to creating jobs and improving competitiveness in the labour market, exchange of experiences and share the European values .
This programme modernises the education, training and youth work in Europe and thus provides the opportunity for young people from the Republic of Macedonia to participate equally in all programmes and activities just as the EU citizens.

Prior to the lectures of the South East Europe, Deputy Prime Minister Besimi visited the medical school Nicolas Stein, which is an example of a successful project of exchange of experiences and practice within the Erasmus + programme through which 30 students had training and practice in a hospital which is part of the retirement home in Celje, Slovenia.