31. 7. 2018 | Danube, PR
Mr Alexander Maier, member of the the State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg, with colleagues visited CEP on Monday, 30 July 2018. This was his first stop on four weeks long journey through Danube region.
Baden-Württemberg is one of the two German federal states (the other is Bavaria) that have recognized the need and benefit of addressing challenges regionally and joined the EU Strategy for Danube region (EUSDR). It is bringing together 14 states (5 of them are non-EU members) that are together facing contemporary issues on connectivity, protection of environment, employment and innovation as well as security and institutional cooperation.
Delegation was first welcomed by CEP Executive Director, Dr Gorazd Justinek, who explained how CEP was established, presented its mission and main projects, highlighting the upcoming Bled Strategic Forum as one of the opportunities for tighter cooperation between Baden-Württemberg and Slovenia. Baden-Württemberg is one of the most developed business areas in the world and their opinion on fast developing industries would be interesting to hear.
Centre is coordinator of the priority area 10 of the EUSDR – Institutional Capacity and Cooperation. Ms Nina Čepon presented the activities and projects implemented last year and in 2018, emphasizing the endeavors for inclusion of youth in policy processes. They have proven through various activities that they would like to shape the policies that are affecting their daily life and have impact on wider society.
After fruitful meeting, delegation visited Ljubljana Regional Waste Management Centre (RCERO Ljubljana), which is the biggest environmental project in Slovenia supported by the EU Cohesion Fund and the most modern facility for waste treatment in Europe, processing waste from a third of Slovenia. The EU’s Cohesion Fund contributed 77.5 million euros, which was 61% of the investment and helped to process the waste very efficiently – 95% of the waste gathered are re-used and re-cycled.
Mr Maier and his colleagues continued their journey towards Sofia, Bulgaria.
23. 7. 2018 | PR, Security
The 26th NATO Summit took place on July 11th and 12th in Brussels. Those meetings gather NATO members, Heads of State and Heads of Governement to evaluate and update the Alliance’s strategy. In general, the Summit was to summarise the work that has been done so far in terms of defence and security aspects as well as to create common fields of future cooperation between EU and USA.
NATO Summits have always been crucial for the work of Center for European Perspective. Peace and security, which are the core of NATO discussions, are strongly emphasized in our work. CEP understands peace and security as one of the main conditions for development, democracy and rule of law. Therefore, NATO decisions have an impact on our three main targets: democratization, youth and security. Accordingly, CEP will be coorganizing a follow up of the Summit in September 2018 together with the Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia.
This year’s Summit was an opportunity to recall that NATO remains the foundation for strong collective defence and security in a changing geopolitical environment. The main focus of this two-days Summit was to strenghten the Alliance’s deterrence and defence posture in a whole-of-government approach, while it is facing challenges and threats from all strategic directions.
To new state and non-state actors, military forces, terrorist, cyber, and hybrid attacks, Heads of State declared the implementation of new tools. In order to maintain its technological edge, the Alliance engaged to optimise intelligence and set up a partnership with industry and academia. A new biometric data policy and a Cyberspace Operation Center have also emerged from this Summit.
The discussions of the Heads of state focused on regions of strategic importance; that is, the Middle East, the Korean Peninsula and the Western Balkans. But also, this Summit was an opportunity for the members of the Alliance to condemn the recent actions of Russia: illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea, destabilization of the eastern Ukraine, the attack using a military-grade nerve agent in Salisbury. Even though NATO claims to remain open to dialogue, the Alliance postulates that Russia is challenging Euro-Atlantic Security.
In this context, Brussels Summit was an opportunity to strenghten the relations between EU and NATO. President Donald Tusk, President Jean-Claude Juncker and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg signed a new EU-NATO joint declaration on 10 July, two years after the first EU-NATO Joint Declaration signed in Poland. The Joint Declaration sums up the progress that has been done since the previous summits and recalls the fundamental character of their cooperation. The EU and NATO also declared to enhance their cooperation on different fields such as: military mobility, cyber security, hybrid threats, counter terrorism as well as women and security. Donald Tusk, president of the European Council addressed Donald Trump directly that Europe needs United States in order to create a common defence and security. He also emphasized that Europe do not have and will not have a better ally than USA.
19. 7. 2018 | Montenegro - EU Accession, PR, Slovenian Development Assistance
In the framework of the bilateral technical assistance project “Assistance to Montenegro in negotiations on accession to the EU” the Centre for European Perspective (CEP) provides assistance to the Montenegrin Securities and Exchange Commission. Two days expert advice that will conclude today, is provided by three experts from Slovene Securities Market Agency (ATVP). ATVP experts focus their consultations on the capital market, different rules on investment firms and investment intermediaries (Negotiating Chapter 9 – Financial services). The project is part of the CEP program activities financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the scope of international development cooperation.
Strokovnjaki ATVP v okviru bilateralne tehnične pomoči svetujejo kolegom iz Črne gore
V okviru projekta ‘Pomoč Črni gori pri pogajanjih o pristopu k EU’ izvaja Center za evropsko prihodnost (CEP) v Podgorici tehnično pomoč sodelavcem črnogorske Komisije za trg vrednostnih papirjev. Dvodnevno svetovanje, ki se zaključuje danes, izvajajo trije strokovnjaki Agencije za trg vrednostih papirjev (ATVP). Slovenski strokovnjaki kolegom iz Črne gore svetujejo v okviru pogajalskega Poglavja 9 – Finančne storitve in sicer na temo kapitalskega trga, investicijskih družb in posredništva pri naložbah. Projekt je del programskih aktivnosti CEP, ki jih financira Ministrstvo za zunanje zadeve iz sredstev za mednarodno razvojno sodelovanje.
19. 7. 2018 | Bled Strategic Forum, PR, Youth
It was the fifth time that the six Western Balkans countries participated in a Summit dedicated to a common cooperation and integration with the European Union. This year’s Summit took place in the United Kingdom in London on 10 July. Prime Minister Theresa May hosted Heads of the Government of the Western Balkan 6: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The representatives of Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece as well as the EU institutions were also present. The whole idea is set within the Berlin Process initiative launched by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on August 28, 2014. The process was designed as a four-year series of meetings of prime ministers, ministers, civil society, and business communities of the Western Balkans. Before the fifth summit, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) put many efforts into making this meeting a success. A special department was set up to deal with the preparations and they held different meetings and seminars with experts on the region, both in the UK and in the region itself. Bled Strategic Forum and Center for European Perspective representatives took active role in preparatory sessions, meetings held prior to the event, as well as at the event itself.
Process has after four years brought various positive developments to the region. The connectivity agenda has contributed to economic co-operation and growth sustainability, while various infrastructure construction and economic space connectivity projects have been developed. There has been some success in resolving bilateral issues as well. Two interstate agreements were signed following the adoption of the Declaration on Bilateral Issues, while the biggest success has been the historic agreement between Macedonia and Greece, whose name dispute, along with the dispute between Belgrade and Pristina, is stated in the final declaration of the Berlin conference in 2014 as one of the key bilateral issues. A lot of progress has been made in recognizing role of youth and youth involvement, while Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) role, established as the Berlin Process product, was welcomed as a very important organisation in promoting reconciliation and increasing regional cooperation between young people. Topic discussed most was youth unemployment. The representatives agreed that young people’s potential need to be harnessed but also remained concerned about high levels of brain drain. The Chair’s Conclusions of the Heads’ meeting of the London Western Balkans Summit welcomed the role young people and civil society had played in shaping the London Summit and strongly agreed that young people are the region’s biggest asset. They also agreed that more needs to be done to harness the potential of the young people.
London summit produced many results, particularly declarations of intent and respective agreements. The heads of state agreed to a “Joint Declaration on Regional and Good Neighborly Relations”, a “Joint Declaration on Missing Persons”, and a “Joint Declaration on War Crimes” (see the documents here). The interior ministers confirmed their intentions to further strengthen information exchange on serious organized crime and other security threats; to further cooperate in tackling the illicit possession, misuse and trafficking of firearms; to deal with human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants; and to deal with corruption (see here). They also agreed to establish a “Berlin Process Security Commitments Steering Group” to oversee the commitments, headed by the UK (see here). Foreign Ministers reiterated the positive developments in the region in the past year (see here).
In addition, the UK used the stage to announce changes in its Western Balkans policy (see here) which included a doubling in UK funding to the region from the Conflict, Security and Stability Fund, as well as a doubling of UK staff in the region dealing with security issues affecting the UK. Furthermore, the UK committed £10 million for digital education among young people; this is a programme run through the British Council from which 4,500 schools will benefit. In addition, the UK promised £1 million to help address legacy issues in the region, especially emphasizing the issue of missing persons in this context, which also had a particular importance during the summit.
One of the downsides of the Berlin process and commitments made at the Summit, is lack of monitoring institutions. Civil society, and its integral part, youth organizations, play a large role here, with keeping track, reporting and disseminating of actions of their respective governments in regards to the commitments made. Civil society should also continue with its contributions in shaping the priority areas to be tackled within the Berlin process, as well as ensure recommendations are provided on the issues at hand.
13. 7. 2018 | Bled Strategic Forum, PR
Round table discussion “Euro-Atlantic Integration in the Western Balkans: Not without its Alternatives?” took place on Tuesday, 10 July 2018 at the Faculty of Social Sciences and was organized by the Centre for European Perspective, the Bled Strategic Forum and the MUN Slovenia Club as part of the 2018 edition of the MUNSC Salient youth conference. Three speakers, Ambassador Paolo Trichilo, Ambassador of the Republic of Italy in Slovenia, Mr Peter Grk, National Coordinator for the Western Balkans, BSF Secretary General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and Ms Jelka Klemenc, DCAF Slovenia, have engaged in a vivid discussion led by Ms Nina Pejič of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Ms Pejič started with a challenging reminder: Federica Mogherini stated publically in 2017 that the Western Balkans will be irreversibly on the path to the EU before the end of her mandate. As one of the initial 6 “old” member states, Italy, so explained Ambassador Trichilo, wholeheartedly supports the entrance of the countries of the WB to the EU, the WB geographically and historically belongs to Europe and the sooner the countries enter, the better. In that way the interests of the member state(s) coincide with the statements of the EU bodies (EASS), in which the Commission has a large voice. Also Mr Grk think the same way: the member states should de-mystify the Balkans and rationally think about what benefits does it bring to let these countries into the EU.
The EU has abandoned the Balkans in the period between 2010-2017 due to its internal struggles (economic crisis, migration crisis, Brexit and identity crisis), but it is now back on track with the hands-on approach towards the integration of the region into the EU, agreed the speakers.
The discussion was closely following the conclusion of the Western Balkans Summit in London, organized in the framework of the Berlin Process. Mr Grk pointed out that the Berlin Process itself is not important, but its outcomes are: the progress in 2018 is indeed outstanding and should be considered monumental for the achievement of the Mogherini’s statement. Also Ms Jelka Klemenc feels that the region has connected through the Berlin Process in a way that is now irreversible in the field of security. The security forces in the region now do not know any other way than to cooperate in the field of internal security issues.
Ms Pejič pointed out that the internal security issues originating from the Balkans region were set as the first priority for the EU in the new strategy for the Western Balkans. In terms of security in the Balkans, all three panelists concurred in the opinion that this is one of the most important fields in which the EU should take the place of the main actor. Although the EU, according to Ms Jelka Klemenc, backed out the Balkans also in this field during the last decade, there was no turning towards the alternative actors in the field of security by the Western Balkans’ countries. To keep it this way, the EU should grab the opportunity and proceed with further security integration after this crucial year of 2018, in which the re-commitment towards the Western Balkans was established and the new strategy for the Western Balkans accepted. For the EU to become a more credible actor in the field of security in this region, the Balkans should become treated as a (possible) security provider instead of a threat.
When they considered the actors that are present in the region, the panelists pointed out the US, which still play a role of the security provider at least in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina; Turkey, whose President recently paid a visit to some Balkan countries; Saudi Arabia, which is one of the actors that in the field of security might endanger the region through financing religious teachings, that can in turn enhance religious fundamentalism and radicalization. China is also considered an alternative actor through its investments in the region, which should, according to the panelists, be accepted but still controlled in order to comply with the European standards in terms of infrastructure etc. All investments should be made in accordance to the European values, agreed the panelists.
However, all panellists were of opinion that although the alternative actors are present in the region and are competing with the primacy of the EU in the Western Balkans, the Euro-Atlantic integration is not endangered, especially if the EU comes through with the plans of re-commitment and invests in the region both politically and financially-wise.
The questions coming from the audience were concerning the most with the question of the possible dangerous Chinese investments in the Western Balkans region and their effect on the process of integration to the EU; the NATO presence in the region and the possible mechanisms of the NATO that could be used to integrate the Western Balkans’ countries faster, and the possible influences of these alternative actors on the internal EU policies.
