Happy Europe Day!

Article written by: Mimika Dobroshi - Head of Kosovo Erasmus+ Office

"Because today is a celebration of Europe Day, allow me to share a personal story, a story about how I came to know Europe and how Europe became part of my own journey.

In 1999, after receiving a scholarship to study at the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG), I believed my future was already  mapped out. I had always dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but since that path was not possible at the time, I chose what felt closest to it: political science and international relations.

During my first years at AUBG, surrounded mostly by American professors, immersed in courses on U.S. politics, foreign policy, Congressional elections, and constitutional debates, I was convinced that my future would eventually lead me toward the United States.

Little did I know that Bulgaria's political direction will also determine my own path.

At exactly that time, or more accurately 4 year before in 1995 Bulgaria had applied for EU membership, in 2000 Bulgaria had begun its negotiations for accession to the European Union. Those negotiations started were concluded in 2004, followed by the signing of the accession treaty in 2005, and culminated in full EU membership in 2007.

Those years transformed Bulgaria profoundly.

You could see change everywhere roads being built, institutions reforming, industries restructuring, opportunities emerging. Of course, transitions were not always easy. Jobs disappeared, old systems collapsed, and uncertainty was real. But new opportunities opened, new investments arrived, and an entirely new horizon became possible for an entire generation.

And as Bulgaria transformed, so did our university experience.

Suddenly, we had more professors from across Europe, more diplomats and ambassadors from EU member states visiting our campus, more discussions about European integration, democracy, law, solidarity, mobility, and what it truly means to belong to Europe.

Conversations very much like the ones we are having in Kosovo today.

That is precisely why programmes such as Erasmus+ matter so deeply.

Because they do not simply fund educational projects.

They shape perspectives.

They connect societies.

They prepare generations.

And they help young people understand both the privilege and the responsibility that come with the European path.

For me personally, those years changed the course of my life. And I know I was not alone. Many of my friends from across the Balkans, who studied together during that transformative period, are today contributing, each in their own way, to the European future of their countries.

I hope that, in some small way, I am doing the same here in Kosovo.

And I sincerely hope that students all over  will experience something similar through Erasmus+ opportunities. These programmes imply that Europe will not remain something distant or abstract, but something studied, debated, understood, challenged, and ultimately lived.

If, during my studies in Bulgaria, European integration became tangible through courses on EU law, institutions, decision-making, economic integration, and European values, then I hope Erasmus+ projecys and mobilities in Europe will bring that same sense of closeness and possibility here in Kosovo.

Because the European journey is not only about negotiations, chapters, or institutions.

It is about transformation.

Of countries.

Of institutions.

And above all, of people.

And perhaps there is no better way to conclude than with the words of one of the founding fathers of Europe, who reminded us:

“Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.”

Today’s celebrations remind us of Erasmus+ concrete achievements in educational landscape here in Kosovo.

Happy Europe Day to all of you."