The young generation of politicians can promote a political culture of accountability

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Zagreb, 6th of May 2014 - Organized by the German liberal Foundation Friedrich Naumann a seminar titled "Responsibility in Politics - commonalities and gaps in the Balkans" took place in Thessaloniki (Solun) from 28th to 30th April.

How Solun is this year's European Capital of Youth, participants were mostly young activists from the liberal think tanks and political parties from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. A seminar was organized through a series of lectures, workshops and debates relating the definition of liberal thought and policy in relation to today's challenges.

Political accountability is a term that describes an obligation of the government to act in the best interest of the citizens and fulfill promised, or face the consequences. In functional democracies , the duty of public servants is to continuously inform citizens and explain their actions and to be responsible for all the good or bad decisions.

As defined by the seminar unfortunately Balkan countries have a long history of political irresponsibility. The analysis of all the participating countries shows many negative similarities (corruption, lack of transparency, insufficient institutional development, citizens distrust in politicians, etc.). In earlier times communist regimes did not have to face the elections and thus did not need to be responsible to their citizens. Remains of such relationship of politicians towards citizens can partly be felt today, especially in the Balkan countries which are not yet within the European Union. In such unfree societies, with the lack of real political pluralism, politicians behave as if they own the state.

The Mayor of Thessaloniki Yiannis Boutaris also participated in an evening public debate in the Municipal Library of Thessaloniki. They talked about the liberal ideas that can be offered in relation to the socialist and conservative politics, which are skeptical and restrictive towards progress and towards integration. The conclusions of the seminar defined new young generation of politicians as the ones who can promote political culture of accountability.

At the seminar CPP's Political Academy was represented by Ivan Gulam, president of CPP's Youth, mayor of the municipality Pirovac and teacher of CPP's Academy for Å ibensko-kninska county organisation.