6. 2. 2018 | BIH - Entrepreneurs, PR, Youth
Entrepreneurial mindset and innovative thinking are the foundation of a healthy growth of the economy, which in turn ensures prosperity and an adequate level of development for all inhabitants. This is particularly important in less stable economic environments and countries where youth unemployment is quite high, as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example. CEP has been with project ‘Empowering BiH young entrepreneurs’ for the fourth consecutive year supporting young Bosnian entrepreneurs and young people with entrepreneurial ideas who would like to develop and upgrade/advance their ideas. CEP assist them to meet and connect, as together, with different approaches and broader pressures, they can influence the entrepreneurial climate in their own country. Through our engagement we brought together over 500 individuals who are aware that for making some changes, they must be active and take part for the changes – only in this way they will be able to change their environment for the better.
CEP with leading regional startup conference PODIM, which takes place every year in May in Maribor, organizes a competition through which the best entrepreneurial ideas and presentations are selected. For 20 young entrepreneurs (team members and their mentors) transport, accommodation and a ticket to the PODIM conference are provided. We are thus spreading their knowledge of entrepreneurial steps, offering them the opportunity to meet potential investors, and, last but not least, with the like-minded from the entire Alpe-Adria region.
Young people have to submit a presentation of their entrepreneurial idea for the competition, which is then reviewed by the expert commission. As we have seen in recent years that presentations submitted from the region could be better, we will organize a workshop, where young people will find out all about the competition, the conference and get opportunity to pitch in front experts and colleagues. At the same time, they will be able to listen to experienced investors on how to scale the company’s growth, when/how investors decide to support the idea and what are the forecasts for investments in the region in 2018. The whole workshop program is available here.
The workshop will be held on Wednesday, February 14 2018, in Sarajevo, at the premises of Networks Sarajevo. Participation is free, but the previous registration is recommended here.
The project ‘Empowering BiH young entrepreneurs’ is part of our program activities, financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Slovenia in the framework of Slovenia’s development cooperation. Similar project in the framework of the Slovenia’s development cooperation is running as well for empowering youth entrepreneurs in Kosovo. More about the workshop in Pristina can be read at this link.
As CEP events were well attended and involved actors provided very good feedback, some countries from the region expressed their interest for similar program. CEP will therefore this year, with support of British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), widen its activities to four additional states – Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – through program Start:up Balkan. Read more about it here.
Read this article in Slovene language.
5. 2. 2018 | PR, Serbia - Opening Data
Centre for European Perspective is organizing international conference „Experience Exchange in Opening of Public Sector Data“, which will take place on Wednesday, 28 February 2018 in Belgrade, Hotel Zlatnik, Dobanovačka 95. A dynamic conference in an interesting format is organized in the framework of the Official Development Cooperation between the Republic of Slovenia and Republic of Serbia in order to present the best experiences and practices from both countries.
Data in the public sector are a newly discovered drivers of development. In Europe, there is a growing awareness of the fact that the public sector generates a large amount of data that are not useful only within the state administration system, but bring multiple benefits to the economy, science and society as a whole. Among its key priorities, the European Union has set the goal to increase the exchange of information and knowledge, to open up public data and facilitate cooperation among public bodies while creating and delivering public services. This will make public administration more efficient and offer user-friendly and tailored public services at a lower cost and with less administrative difficulties. The strategy of opening up public administration and its data is related to citizens’ participation in the public processes and decision-making. Such approach is embedded both in the strategic documents of Slovenia and Serbia.
While implementing the policies of opening the public sector data, the states go through different development stages of readiness and preparedness – from access to public information and data, governance and data exchange within the Government, e-Government, opening and publishing data for reuse and to various applications that use public sector data or so-called open data portals; all for the stages aiming to provide good public services for citizens and business. The ultimate goal is a free flow of all public data across Europe.
The purpose of the conference is to enable a comprehensive exchange of thoughts, experiences and practices between all interested parties (representatives of government, independent institutions, experts from the public administration, representatives of business sector, the media, academic institutions and civil society). The format of the conference will serve as a tool to obtain new ideas for encouraging an open, transparent and inclusive public administration, which is an important aspect of the endeavour for the EU membership, with a goal to strengthen the public sector data opening.
The conference is part of the CEP program activities financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia in the scope of international development cooperation.
1. 2. 2018 | PR, ROSE
In order to prepare the Slovenian market for the implementation of the e-Invoicing Directive 2014/55/EU, binding for all public procurement obligors in the EU to receive eInvoice sent in the European standard, the actors, involved in the “Readiness Of Slovenian E-Invoicing” (ROSE) Action issued an upgrade of the eSlog 2.0 standard. Various relevant stakeholders were involved in the preparation of the upgrade.
From today on, XML scheme of the new standard and mapping tables between eSlog 2.0 and eSlog 1.6, in order to enable translation between the two standards, are available at http://www.roseslovenia.eu/activities.html. Scheme and tables are supported by eSlog 2.0 documentation in Slovenian and English language for software solution and services providers to enable integration of the new eSlog standard into their solutions.
Dušan Zupancic, Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia, explains the importance of the newly developed standard: “The update of eSlog is EN 16931 compliant and follows the Directive 2014/55/EU rules. Firstly, the upgrade will enable receipt of eInvoices from the EU Members States in public administration and secondly, it will enable receipt in private sector. Slovenia is among the first EU countries that will implement national standard and eInvoicing infrastructure in accordance with the EU standard by 1 June 2018.”
Educational workshops continue in the spring
Partners consortium devotes speacial attention to informing and education the actors that are affected by a reform and organizes a series of educational workshops around Slovenia. In the upcoming months, they will be taking place in:
- Koper, 21 March 2018
- Maribor, 23. March 2018
- Kranj, 28 March 2018
- Postojna, 4 April 2018
- Celje, 6 April 2018
- Ljubljana, 11 April 2018
Workshop in Ljubljana will focus on technical aspects and will gather ERP solution providers and other actors who develop products and services for eInvoicing processes.
The upgrade was presented at 8th Steering Board meeting of the ROSE Action, a Connecting European Facility Action, co-financed by the European Union and implemented by the Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, ZZI d.o.o., Mojdenar IT d.o.o. and Centre for European Perspective.
24. 1. 2018 | PR, V4, Youth
Centre for European Perspective (CEP), Slovenia is organising a public debate in Brussels in March 2018 titled Back on the Agenda: EU Enlargement and Western Balkans. Event will address the EU enlargement fatigue on one side and Western Balkans’ lack of reform on the other. We would like to trigger new debate on EU – Western Balkans relations and hear clear messages from both sides.
As we would like to actively engage young people from the Western Balkan countries in a public debate with EU policy-makers we invite you to respond to our call for application. Write an essay and get a chance to shape your future in Brussels. We will select one essay author per country to join us in Brussels (CEP will cover him/her travel and accommodation expenses). Deadline for applications is 12 February 2018, by midnight CET.
Access the application form here:
List of selected authors will be published on 19 February 2018. Winning authors will be selected based on the quality of the essay written and their previous engagement in the field. All selected authors will sign a statement of commitment and purpose.
Event is done in cooperation with Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) (Hungary), EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (Czech Republic), Slovak Foreign Affairs Association (SFPA)and Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) and supported by International Visegrad fund.
22. 1. 2018 | Danube, PR
For victims of trafficking in human beings, the Danube Region is not only a destination for exploitation. A significant amount of victims of human trafficking in Europe is recruited from within the Danube Region, in particular within Romania and Bulgaria. Cities and municipalities can play a crucial role in identifying and assisting victims as well as preventing trafficking in human beings as local actors are closest to both victims and traffickers. Effectively combatting trafficking in human beings requires cooperation between different local stakeholders from public authorities and law enforcement, civil society and further actors involved in the field as well as a coordinated transnational approach. However, cities and municipalities often lack the capacities and know-how to act accordingly and need to establish cooperation ties between the various stakeholders.
Priority Area 10 “Institutional Capacity and Cooperation” of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) organized the Round Table on “Preventing & Combating Human Trafficking and Exploitation at Local Level” in Vienna on 24th of November 2017. Experts and newcomers from public administration, civil society, international organizations and academia shared their experience in the fight against trafficking in human beings (THB). Slovene experiences were presented by Society Ključ (Društvo Ključ) and Slovenian Karitas, supported by CEP representative.
The participants emphasized the important role of local actors in fighting trafficking in human beings as they are the closest to both victims and traffickers and can therefore more easily detect them. However, there are severe gaps and training needs among frontline responders. Claudia Singer (EUSDR Priority Area 10) presented the recent “Guidelines for Municipalities” in the Danube Region that provides some guidance for identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking as well as mapping and preventing human trafficking at local level.
In a current study, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) analyses the risks of exploitation, training needs as well as good practices in victim protection. Enrico Ragaglia (ICMPD) pointed out that one of the challenges is that victims might not be aware what crime they are victim of, which makes the detection of victims more difficult for official bodies. Additionally, the status of victims can be challenged through the transnationality of the crime, meaning that victims of human trafficking might not be classified as victims in the legal sense in the country of destination as the crime of human trafficking took place in a different country. Thus, victims are not part of a legal procedure and are not granted victim rights.
Against this background, the experts shared examples of proven measures to support victims such as toll-free helplines, setting up crisis units with stakeholders from different sectors that assist victims and evaluate the state of play on a regular basis, drafting a set of tasks for collaboration or envisaging protection programmes. Experts from city administrations and civil society presents some good practices addressing better coordination through standing working groups (Vienna, AT), cooperation between civil society and law enforcement (Ljubljana, SI), comprehensive assistance for victims (Barcelona, ES) and awareness raising (Moscow, RU).
The next D-CAHT seminar will take place in the first half of 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The Round Table on “Preventing & Combating Human Trafficking and Exploitation at Local Level” is part of the initiative Danube Cities Against Human Trafficking (D-CAHT) of Priority Area 10 “Institutional Capacity and Cooperation” of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). The initiative aims at raising awareness of trafficking in human beings among local actors, providing local actors, administration, representatives of NGOs with information and know-how by highlighting good practices in cities and municipalities and identifying common challenges and provide practical tools for the work of local actors.
The Round Table on “Preventing & Combating Human Trafficking and Exploitation at Local Level” was co-financed by the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme/European Union and the city of Vienna.
Documents:
Guidelines for Municipalities: Stepping up local action against human trafficking in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region
Danube Cities against Human Trafficking: Round Table on Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking and Exploitation at Local Level
