March, 2022 - CEP

Conference on countering disinformation in held in Ljubljana

18. 3. 2022 | PR, Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation in 6 Western Balkans Countries

The Centre for European Perspective held the third capacity-building training/conference on countering disinformation in Ljubljana (SI) from 15 to 17 March 2022, bringing together representatives of government, civil society and media from all 6 countries of the Western Balkans.

The conference offered new insights into how humans store and process information, and also presented case studies on disinformation regarding Ukraine and the pandemic in Canada. The participants were acquainted with a best practices approach in treating and countering disinformation (cases of Taiwan and Sweden) and had a training on tools for investigating online misinformation and disinformation. An interactive session was devoted to putting acquired knowledge to practice and came up with a set of concrete solutions/proposals going forward – most importantly for participants’ respective countries, but for the project and future conferences as well.

Project “Strengthening societal resilience and countering foreign perpetrated disinformation in the Western Balkans” is financed by the National Endowment for Democracy and Slovenian Development Aid fund (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia).

EUCPST Evaluation Committee Members Gathered in Lisbon, Portugal

17. 3. 2022 | EUPCST, PR

Between 14 and 16 March, the members of the EUPCST Evaluation Committee, chaired by the Centre for European Perspective (CEP), met in Lisbon, Portugal. Meeting was held at the premises of the National Republican Guard (GNR), national gendarmerie of Portugal.

The main goal of the Evaluation Committee was to gather abundant experience of the GNR in evaluating Comprehensive Live Exercises (CLEs). These exercises intend to build the capacity of police and gendarmerie officers and units who will be fulfilling their roles in international missions. As EUPCST includes the civilian perspective as well, one of the open questions of the meeting was also to find ways to incorporate and integrate civilian and police aspects into one exercise.

Conducting and evaluating such complex exercises that include a big number of participants is both rewarding and challenging. Organizers have an important job of creating intense, realistic and inclusive exercise scenarios, evaluators on the other hand need to be always omnipresent. But the gained knowledge and broad implications for other projects in the fields of peacebuilding, capacity building and civilian crisis management are invaluable.

Covid-19 restrictions limited the scope of EUPCST activities in the previous two years, but the partners are picking up the pace and finishing strong. As the project is nearing its end, there are 26 activities still planned for 2022.

CEP will among other activities continue its important work chairing the Evaluation Committee and will organize a Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) in September. We are already looking forward to learning new skills, broaden our network even more and share our knowledge.

Bled Strategic Forum roundtable discussion – Aggression on Ukraine: Lining up the West

15. 3. 2022 | Bled Strategic Forum, PR

Yet again history makes its mark on Europe.

The war in Ukraine, instigated by Russia, will have a lasting impact on European security. The conflict, which has broader geopolitical implications, could signal a beginning of growing instability in various other regions such as the Balkans, South China Sea, or Taiwan. Furthermore, the conflict could spill over into EU countries. The international order based on the equality of sovereign countries is crumbling before our eyes. Simultaneously we are witnessing unity and vigour of the European Union and NATO in its responses to the Russian aggression. Europe is uniting and the Transatlantic partnership is reinvigorated. Security is again at the forefront and the European Security Architecture is and has to change drastically.

On the 15th of March Bled Strategic Forum, Centre for European Perspective and the Atlantic Council held a discussion titled Aggression on Ukraine: Lining up the West – a discussion aimed at uncovering the wider consequences of the war in Ukraine for European security and geopolitical implications of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The introductory remarks were delivered by Ambassador Iztok Mirošič, BSF Programme Director, with panel speakers Mr Mykhailo Gonchar, Founder & President, Center for Global Studies “Strategy XXI”, Ukraine, Dr Stefan Meister, Head of Program for International Order and Democracy, German Council on Foreign Relations, Mr Jernej Müller, Political Director, Director-General, Directorate for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and Ms Anna Wieslander, Director Northern Europe, Europe Center, Atlantic Council.

The discussion was moderated by Ms Katja Geršak, Executive Director, Centre for European Perspective.

Missed the discussion?

You can watch it here:

First in-person EUCTI partner meeting successfully under (Jable Castle) roof

14. 3. 2022 | EUCTI, PR

Last week, on 10 March, European Union Civilian Training Initiative (EUCTI) Secretariat, located at CEP premises at Jable Castle, hosted the first in-person partner meeting. Representatives from seven partner organizations and a representative of EU structures joined us at Jable for a day of intense discussions on the past, present and future of the project activities.

Besides CEP, representatives of ASPR, Clingendael, CMC and ZIF contributed to the discussion in-person. Representatives of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and Egmont Institute joined the discussion remotely. The Consortium was also joined by one of its steering group members, the representative of European External Action Service, Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI.2).

Head of EUCTI Secretariat, Markko Kallonen, and Head of Peace and Security Programme at CEP, Nina Čepon, opened the meeting. Busy agenda included project updates from partners, working groups developments, brainstorming ideas for 3^rd country activities, goals and plans for 2022 training delivery and discussion on the future of the project. In the end many open questions were balanced out by new ideas for the visibility and broadened scope of our project. But most importantly by the reignited commitment of all partners to the success of the project and wish to continue with the important work.

We at CEP are already looking forward to the next partner meeting. Until then we will continue with our activities, with the first one happening soon, in the end of March. More will follow!

Third capacity-building training on countering disinformation in Ljubljana

9. 3. 2022 | PR, Strengthening Societal Resilience and Countering Foreign Perpetrated Disinformation in 6 Western Balkans Countries

The Centre for European Perspective is holding the third capacity-building training/conference on countering disinformation in Ljubljana (SI) from 15 to 17 March 2022, bringing together representatives of government, civil society and media from all 6 countries of the Western Balkans.The conference will build upon the experiences and knowledge from previous conferences, enhance inter- and intra-country networking and regional cooperation while at the same time offer the participants insights into newest developments and good practices on countering mis- and disinformation, offer new tools to investigate them and propose concrete results/steps going forward on countering disinformation.