Circular Economy in Western Balkans

OVERVIEW

The achievement of the European Green Deal – to which all the EIT KICs are contributing through different angles - will not be possible without an early involvement of key EU partners and neighbours such as the Western Balkans. Therefore EIT Community launched a project targeting Western Balkans stakeholders (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[1], Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia) to widen EIT and KICs outreach in a region, engage local actors in education, entrepreneurship and policy activities offered by KICs and enhance the synergies among KICs and with key local players at country and regional level in the green, circular economy.

EIT Food's contribution

Agriculture and food production has a significant share in all WB countries’ economies, therefore major societal and environmental challenges should be addressed by restructuring local food systems parallelly to other parts of economic activity. Strengthening circular economy in food production, processing by supporting new business creation shall increase the competitiveness of the local products, create new jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. Nearly 18mln of food consumers living in WB which might be addressed with promoting healthy nutrition, food safety or waste reduction initiatives will create a significant contribution to the Pan-European change of consumer habits and lifestyle. Extending in 2020 its RIS hub network and launching a direct institutional collaboration with Serbian stakeholders, EIT Food started impacting the innovativeness of the local food system and wants to continue these efforts in the whole WB region.

[1] This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence