Centre for European Perspective has been active in the field of civilian crisis management since its establishment. In 2008 it was proud to be nominated as the Slovene member of the European Group on Training (EGT) that in a couple of years evolved into a Europe’s New Training Initiative for Civilian Crisis Management (ENTRi) project. 13 partners from the EU have, in a period of nine years, implemented numerous training activities, developed sophisticated certification system and contributed to the harmonization and standardization of training that professionals are receiving before their deployment to the field. CEP took over different training activities, from generic such as pre-deployment or train the trainers training, to the specialized courses, such as hostile environment awareness training (HEAT), mentoring in CCM and gender equality and gender mainstreaming course. On top of that, several e-learning and off-the-shelf training packages were delivered. With great honour, CEP was appointed as a coordinator of the new training project that will build on the above mentioned ENTRi legacy – European Union Civilian Training Activities.
EU Civilian Training Initiative (EUCTI) is an EU-financed project that commenced with its activities in January 2021 and is planned to last for three years. Its main objective is to contribute to an enhanced position of the EU as a peace actor through better-prepared professionals that are supporting the EU CSDP missions in achieving its mandates. This will be reached through almost 30 training activities, developed and designed specifically for the mission that will voice a training need, and implemented in the mission or the region. Several other project activities are foreseen, mainly related to the evaluation, development of new pedagogical approaches to the training as well as support for third-country training institutions.
The EUCTI project consortium consists of eight partners: Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR), Clingendael – the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Crisis Management Centre Finland (CMC), EGMONT – The Royal Institute for International Relations from Belgium, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSA) from Italy, Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF) from Germany, Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) from Sweden and CEP from Slovenia as its coordinator. All consortium partners participated previously in Europe’s New Training Initiative for Civilians Crisis Management (ENTRi) activities and the EUCTI will draw on this experience.
As organizing demand-driven training activity in current times is not the easiest task, a virtual kick-off meeting will be held on Thursday, March 11, 2021. It aims to bring together all key stakeholders that will support, shape and streamline the EUCTI activities. On one hand, it will give the floor to the European Union institutions (the European Commission and European External Action Service) that will explain how they see the EUCTI activities fit in the bigger picture of the Common Security and Defence Policy. On the other hand, project partners will be invited to present their experiences and adaptation to the COVID-19 reality that affected greatly the training actions. Last, but not least, EU CSDP missions, the project’s most direct beneficiaries, and other international actors present on the ground (the UN, OSCE and African Union), will get the floor to share their training needs, practical insights from their side of the world.
Further information about the project can be found here, you can follow EUCTI on Facebook & Twitter or on the new EUCTI web site – coming soon so stay tuned!