The Hellenic National Youth Council, in the framework of the project "EnvironmentYou - Environmental Management Enhancement by Youth-Run SMEs" which is part of the European Territorial Cooperation program Interreg V-A “Greece-Bulgaria 2014-2020" and focuses on the development of specially designed promotion procedures and with the aim of the successful dissemination and effective implementation of the Environmental Management System (EMS) in agricultural enterprises, organized the Final Conference in Thessaloniki.
The Final Conference took place on 17th of December 2021 and included keynote speeches, the presentation of the project results and a round table discussion on the overall project experiences. More than 30 participants from Greece and Bulgaria attended the Final Conference - representatives of the partner organizations of the project: Hellenic National Youth Council, Agricultural University-Plovdiv, Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia, Youth Forum 21st Century Association, Euroregion Nestos Mesta, Regional Center for Vocational Education and Training to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Blagoevgrad and the Association for Regional Social and Economic Development. Moreover, more than 100 people attended the event live streaming.
The event started with the vice president of HNYC, Stelios Maridakis who welcomed the participants. Then the Deputy Governor for Agricultural Economy of Central Macedonia, Sotiris Mpatos took the floor and the Project Officer from the Joint Secretariat of the INTERREG V-A “Greece-Bulgaria 2014-2020” Cooperation Programme, Jenya Dinkova.
The welcome speeches were followed by the keynote presentation of the Senior Researcher of the Institute of Bio-Economy and Agrotechnology in the Research and Technology Center of Greece, Dr Thanos Balafoutis and his team. The presentation included the Recent Scientific Trends in the agricultural sector and the Best Practices applied across Europe.
The main part of the conference was the presentation of the results of the project by all partners which was divided into three main sessions, the Environmental Training of Youth & SMEs, the Development & Application of an EMS for the Agri-food Sector and the Exchanging Knowledge & Sharing Skills across the Borders.
Finally, presented the Overall Project Achieved Results and was conducted a Roundtable Discussion between partners.