Skopje _ BIRN Macedonia held a launch for “Moving On: Overcoming Balkan Barriers on the Way to a European Future” in the Journalists’ Club in Skopje on December 17.

Journalists and editors from the country’s most influential media as well as friends of the organisation attended the reception, organised to promote the book containing ten reports written by journalists from all over the Balkans.
BIRN Macedonia`s country director Ana Petruseva presented the background to The Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, which provided the framework for the book’s publication, and announced plans for next year`s programme, inviting journalists and editors to make use of the opportunities it offered. The 2007 Macedonian fellow, Eleonora Veninova, author of the article, “Visa regime fails to keep Balkan immigrants at bay”, spoke about her experiences with the programme, and recommended it to the journalists attending the meeting.

The Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Erste Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, selects ten fellows annually to carry out research within a theme related to European integration. In 2007, this was ‘mobility’, and the fellows from throughout the region covered obstacles and opportunities to the movement of goods, people and ideas in a range of sectors, including labour markets, business, justice, transport, sport, education and culture. The results were published on November 16, online and in hard copy, in English, German and all main languages of the Balkans.

To find out more about the Fellowship programme, and to read Moving On online, go to fellowship.birn.eu.com or email fellowship@birn.eu.com