22. 5. 2017 | Bled Strategic Forum, PR
The Young BSF, an integral part of the Bled Strategic Forum, traditionally held in the days preceding the Forum, has become a unique meeting place for a diverse array of young leaders, entrepreneurs, bloggers, thinkers and socially active individuals, offering them a platform to share their visions, exchange ideas and network with one another throughout the year. The Young BSF is organised jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Centre for European Perspective.
Each year Young BSF gathers young people, who engage in vibrant dialogues on current most pressing issues, address inventive approaches in promoting positive change and finding solutions to the many complex challenges.
The Young BSF model is growing and changing annually. The topics have varied and ideas evolved, but the main objective remained clear: to bring together bold, brave and action-oriented individuals from different walks of life, both foreigners and Slovenians, and offers them a collaborative, creative, and inspiring environment for discussion and networking.
This year’s Young BSF will be held on 2 – 4 September 2017 under the title “The (Dis)connected Reality” addressing the three E-s of today globalized world – electronics, environment and economy. The three main topics will be further examined through the main panels: Electronics: the future of people in the land of robots?, Environment: No flow, no go?, and The Virtual Reality of Economy and the Real Sector.
The Young BSF departs from the simple, yet exciting perspective: “We live in interesting and turbulent times. A prominent Slovenian novelist Bartol would say that nothing is real and everything is allowed. The realities of our physical world seem to be completely disconnected with the reality that we are trying to live, the virtual reality where all our wishes seem to be possible.”
The 2017 Young BSF will give visionary young leaders an opportunity to form real, connected or virtual partnerships and networks. This goal-oriented forum will seek to prompt discussions and create synergies of different ideas, turning them into connected or disconnected realities of and for everyone. Read more about Young BSF here.
Photo: Young BSF 2016.
16. 5. 2017 | Albania - Local Governments, PR, Slovenian Development Assistance
In the framework of the project ‘Assistance to Albanian municipalities in the preparation of the EU and other international projects’ between 23 and 26 May 2017 Centre for European Perspective (CEP) will conduct the second workshop in Tirana. The workshop is continuation of the first workshop that was held in April in Albanian Vlora. Same participants will continue with the preparation of their project ideas.
In the four weeks that have passed since the first workshop the participants prepared a logical frameworks for their project ideas. The logical frameworks were submitted to the trainers who have checked them and will continue to work on them with the participants next week. The main objective of the second workshop is that each group of participants prepare an outline of the project proposal that could successfully compete on a concrete call.
CEP is preparinga training in cooperation with the Balkan Center for Cooperation and Development (BCCD), the American development agency USAID and the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Tirana.
The project is part of the CEP program activities financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the scope of international development cooperation.
15. 5. 2017 | Bled Strategic Forum, PR
The time has come to announce the 12th Bled Strategic Forum that will be taking place on 4 and 5 September 2017 under the title “New Reality”. The forum is organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and Centre for European Perspective.
The world is rapidly changing, with globalisation and digitalisation significantly increasing the pace of our lives and bringing us closer together than ever before, as well as presenting profound challenges to our self-perception, politics, the economy, security, and society. Established political, economic and social elites are losing ground. Populist, nationalist and extremist movements are on the rise. It is difficult to keep up with the vast amount of information that bombards us daily, let alone evaluate its true value or meaning and put it in a proper context. Such challenges of the new reality we live in will be addressed through the panel discussions, round tables and one-on-one interviews at this year’s conference in the idyllic environment of Bled, Slovenia.
The leading conference in Central and South East Europe that provides the needed high-level platform for discussing pressing regional and global issues brings forth also the questions of the role of the business sector, big corporations and small businesses and the challenges of the younger generation in their aspirations for the better future. Therefore, the forum also incorporates the Business BSF, addressing the topic of “Innovating New Reality” and Young BSF, taking place on 1-3 September 2017, tackling the “(Dis)connected Reality”.
Attracting some one thousand participants, including heads of state and government, ministers, diplomats, businesspeople, scholars and the media from around the world, the Forum is a unique opportunity for bilateral and multilateral meetings with the foremost regional and global stakeholders and offers the possibility of extensive networking among political and business leaders of today.
We are excited to share some further details about the conference in the weeks to follow – stay tuned via our website, Facebook and Twitter.
Photo courtesy of Tourist Information Center (TIC) Bled, Bled Tourist Association.
12. 5. 2017 | BIH - Entrepreneurs, Kosovo - Entrepreneurs, PR, Slovenian Development Assistance
Centre for European Perspective hosted a group of young entrepreneurs for a three-day training in the field of entrepreneurship and transfer of good practices from Slovenia. The participants visited Maribor, Jable Castle and Ljubljana and had a chance to get to know Slovenian entrepreneurial ecosystem and existing start-up initiatives.
We hosted 40 young entrepreneurs from the Western Balkans, 10 start-up teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and 10 from Kosovo at the PODIM Conference, one of the leading start-up meetings in the region. They were selected on the basis of the PODIM Challenge call that initially received more than 70 entrepreneurial ideas, 48 from Kosovo and 27 from BiH. Young entrepreneurs had to present their idea, team and business plan. Among over 200 start-ups from Slovenia and the region, two teams from BiH, AOX Earth and Koola, got into the semi-finals where 20 best start-up ideas pitched in front of the experts and investors.
Participants had a chance to listen to the inspiring and content-rich speeches and workshops, delivered by serial start-upers, investors, initiators from all four corners of the world. They met with the investors through one-on-one meetings, they widened their horizons at the consulting and coaching sessions and discussed their ideas with the young people with a similar entrepreneurial mindset.
The last day of the training was devoted to the wrap-up session at Jable castle. Participants discussed their experience at the conference and addressed the potentials of cooperation inside their home countries and among the countries of the Western Balkans. Urban Lapajne from Start:up Slovenija initiative talked about the Slovenian experience of the country-wide cooperation and coordination between the incubators, universities, technological parks. In BiH and Kosovo, there is no such coordination platform, which is why the idea was discussed with our young participants. The need for such cooperation was supported also by Ana Anžej from SAŠA Inkubator and Start:up Slovenia. The representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peter Grk and Alenka Košir discussed Slovenian and EU efforts in the Balkans and the Positive Agenda for Youth in the Western Balkans. In conclusion, the participants visited the ABC Accelerator where they got a chance to present their idea in 1 minute and got a professional pitching feedback from the experienced ABC Team.
The project 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.
9. 5. 2017 | PR
Europe Day, held on 9 May every year, celebrates peace and unity in Europe. Marking the anniversary of the historical speech delivered by the then foreign minister of France, Robert Schuman, in Paris in 1950, the continent remembers the origins of the idea that he set out on that day – the idea of a new form of cooperation in Europe, unthinkable earlier on the divided and war-torn continent. His vision was to create an institution that would manage and pool the coal and steel production, which is believed to be the beginning of what is today the European Union. Today CEP Team collected a couple of ideas about the future of the EU.
Schuman’s idea has seen the light of day only a year later, but the spirit of integration remained strong and led to further cooperation and collaboration of the nations that have not long ago been involved into a cruel war against each other. Looking back at the 20th Century, it appears to be rather unthinkable to gather the nations under one roof, where they share common values, beliefs and aspirations for the future. Yet, our predecessors made it. They united the community of European nations into a highly integrated economic, political and social community.
»We must not take all this for granted, we must try hard to build on the foundations, which the founding fathers of the EU developed.« – Gorazd
»Future of the EU: I still dare to hope that de facto solidarity will follow.« – Tina
Years of progress, years of compromises and years of efforts passed. Yet, the EU is facing an overwhelming amount of challenges. From populism to racial intolerance, from migration to financial and economic challenges, from sky-rocketing youth unemployment rates to the armed conflicts in its neighbourhood. However, we cannot miss the progress that the continent has seen in the last couple of decades. Peace among the nations and prosperity across the peoples do outweight the sproadic disagreements.
»Only united Europe can play a role in the world of tomorrow.« – Ivana
Keeping that in mind shall push us forward. It shall trigger even stronger belief in the unity, trust in the solidarity, and faith in the power of cooperation. As only such mindset can keep the EU with its specific nature of actorness on the global stage as a global actor.
»Only a cooperative, integrated and prosperous EU can be the global actor of the future.« – Sabina
»We should never forget the reasons behind the idea of united Europe. Referring to Donald Tusk: Together we stand, divided we fall.« – Ingrid
And what are the key ideas of CEP about the future of the EU?
