Renata Taušan
Head of Office, Representative Office of the Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem Region to the EU
Interest for regional development, EU funds and EU policies has always been the focus of my career development. I was attending grammar school in a small town of Virovitica, Croatia, humanities major, when I got the opportunity to became the part of European Youth Parliament platform. I was a part of the platform for the next 10 years pursuing EU current topics from the fields of economy, education, human rights and gender equality.
In 2017 I got a masters degree from Faculty of Humanities and Social Studies, University of Zagreb, pedagogy mayor.
During my studies I developed first competencies in creating and implementing EU project through Erasmus+ projects.
Following, by the end in 2017 I started my position as Senior professional associate for Creation and Implementation of EU Projects and Programs at VIDRA-Regional Development Agency of Virovitica-Podravina County in Virovitica (Croatia) where I was working on projects within the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund the European Social Fund, also Erasmus +, Creative Europe and Interreg programs. Upon my return to my hometown Virovitica, I was made aware by lack of opportunities for young people in such a small rural town, especially when it comes to civic activism. Following, I founded Youth Club Virovitica. Main activities of Youth Club were organizing workshops and panels in order to improve civic and democratic competencies of youth.
Next step, from 2019 was Senior professional associate for Regional Development and Strategy at the same Agency, where I was part of a small team who crated two main development strategies for Virovitica-Podravina County.
My first experience with working within EU institutions was traineeship by the European Committee of the Regions in 2020 as a assistant to political advisers in the European People's Party where I was working on broad specter of topics.
Since September of 2022 I am Head of Office of Representative office of Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem region in Brussles. Representative office represents the interests of the five Croatian counties: Osijek-Baranja, Virovitica-Podravina, Brod-Posavina, Vukovar-Srijem and Požega-Slavonia. Aim of my work is to contribute to a faster process of integration of the five counties into the EU space encompassing the political, economic and social levels of society.
