Skopje, 27 June 2022 (MIA) – Culture Minister Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska will take part at the Ministerial Meeting of the Western Balkans Steering Platforms on Culture, Research and Innovation, Education and Training on June 27-28 in Tirana. The European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel will attend the ministerial meetings, chaired by the European Commission, the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the Albanian Ministries of Culture, Education and Sports, the Ministry of Culture said in a press release. "The ministerial meeting represents a key event in the united efforts to maintain the political momentum, encouraged by the start of the Brdo Summit Agenda for the Western Balkans last October. The main focus is on innovations, research, education, culture, youth and sport, through which the Western Balkans is on a solid path towards greater cooperation in these policy areas. We should actively include the youth in all processes and we have to create the possibility to bring Macedonian cultural heritage closer to them, so they can then transfer it to the future generations," said Kostadinovska-Stojchevska. The first Ministerial Steering Platform on Culture for the Western Balkans will be officially promoted today, followed by the meetings of the Ministerial Platform for Research, Innovation, Education and Training tomorrow. The JRC Science for Policy report “The Status of the Environment and the Climate in the Western Balkans”, the main element of the Western Balkans Green Deal, will also be presented at the forum tomorrow. The key topics to be discussed during the three ministerial meetings include cultural heritage, cooperation between the academic and the business sectors as drivers of innovation, and learning about environmental sustainability, reads the press release.