For the second Council Meeting of the working year 2017/18, EDS was warmly welcomed by YFU VMRO DPMNE in Skopje. The event took place from 14 December to 17 December. The event was held under the theme “Young Leaders Academy – The role of dialogue in building stronger societies”.

During the event, the young people from all over Europe had the opportunity to meet and to speak with highly valuable speakers about the prospects of EU enlargement, freedom of expression and association, free media and fake news.  The event was opened by the Johannes D. Rey, Oficial Representative of Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Katerina Jakimovska, Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, Vladimir Neloski, Chairman of YFU of VMRO-DPMNE and Virgilio Falco, Chairman of EDS. On Friday delegates had the chance to hear from Hristijan Mickoski, Secretary General of VMRO-DPMNE and Slagana Dimiskova, Journalist about the threat of fake news and how is possible to distinguish truth and untruth nowadays. In the same session, keynote speeches were delivered by Nikola Poposki, MP and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Patrick Voller, EPP Secretary of External Relations that gave us an overview about the long march towards the EU: Candidates, neighbours and the prospects for enlargement. On Friday as well, the participants discussed the Conference Resolution and split into each of the Working Groups to discuss and develop the motions to be presented at the Council Meeting.

On Saturday, the second Council Meeting of the Working Year was held at VMRO-DPMNE Headquarters. During the Council Meeting were elected 2 new Vice-Chairs for 2 remaining positions: Radu Mihaela, TLDM Moldova and Gergely Losonci, Fidelitas Hungary. Furthermore, during the meeting, we have met Nikola Gruevski, President of VMRO DPMNE and former Prime-Minister of FYROM.