20. 9. 2017 | Bled Strategic Forum, PR
Centre for European Perspective is a proud co-organizer of the Bled Strategic Forum. This year’s forum brought together over 1000 participants from 66 countries in the world in order to address the most pressing issues of today’s world. Under the title “New Reality”, topics such as nuclear security, future of the European Union, enlargement and accession of the Western Balkans into the EU, water for peace and security and digital diplomacy were addressed. At the Business BSF special attention was devoted to innovation for and in the new reality, while Young BSF touched upon the concept of the 3E’s: ecology, economy and electronics.
Are you seeking for a recap from the forum?
Find the online content here:
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
VIDEO FOOTAGE
DISCUSSIONS
PHOTO GALLERY
CEP would like to thank all participants, speakers, moderators for their insightful contributions to the discussions and our most distinguished partners for making the conference possible.
Thank you!
15. 9. 2017 | PR, ROSE
“Will we be ready for European standard for eInvoicing?” Launch Conference for CEF Action
22 September 2017 in Slovenia (Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia)
The conference will provide an introduction of the upcoming requirement for European public service providers to be able to receive eInvoice when sent to them in European standard. The purpose is to clarify what is Slovenia doing to prepare and be ready to implement the Directive 2014/55/EU on eInvoicing in public procurement and to present how will public service providers be supported, especially through the activities, trainings and solutions provided by “Readiness Of Slovenian E-invoicing” (ROSE), the Connecting European Facility Action, co-financed by the European Union.
TARGET AUDIENCE: The conference targets primarily representatives of contract authorities and contracting entities in public procurement who are substantively involved in managing work processes in their organisation, including public procurement. The participation of other stakeholder such as IT companies, ERP providers, providers of e-communication services, and subjects who participate in public procurements are also welcomed. The language of the conference is Slovene.
More info at: www.roseslovenia.eu
13. 9. 2017 | Danube, PR
The EU macroregional strategies conference on media and communication – know thy neighbour is aimed at bringing together media people, practicians, academia, general public and interested stakeholders from the four EU macroregional strategies (Baltic, Danube, AdriaticIonian and Alpine) to discuss how to improve the visibility of macro-regional strategies in the public sphere and how to strengthen the media support to macro-regional endeavors.
Globalisation has made countries more interdependent, and problems must now be addressed across borders. This calls for a reflection on how macro-regions, as new functional areas, can contribute to improving the implementation of EU policies.
The emergence of macro-regional strategies (MRS) has been driven by a number of EU countries and regions as a complement to traditional national policies on territorial management. The aim of a macro-regional strategy is to mobilise new projects and initiatives thereby creating a sense of common responsibility. They provide regional building blocks for pursuing EU-wide policy, marshalling national approaches into a more coherent implementation at the EU level.
But without proactive communication, no effort is really seen from the outside, by EU citizens and stakeholders. During the Mediterranean Coast and EU Macro-Regional Strategies Week organised under the Slovenian presidency of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) in September 2016, a proposal to create a single horizontal pillar for all 4 EU macro-regional strategies was presented – “the media/communication” pillar – that would be of help in creating sufficient visibility for macro-regional strategies’ joint endeavors and understanding, and support for the exchange of ways of thinking and acting within the MRS.
Join us in Portorož, Slovenia between 20th and 22nd of September!
Registration until 18th September here. The final program with speakers is available here. More information about the Mediterranean Coast and EU Macro-Regional Strategies Week is reachable here.
12. 9. 2017 | PR, Serbia - Traineeships, Slovenian Development Assistance
Centre for European Perspective will conduct a new project in cooperation with the Ministry of European Integration of the Republic of Serbia entitled “Professional traineeships for Serbian public servants”. The project aims to directly strengthen readiness and capacity of the public and civil servants of the ministry of European integration in order to better equip them for the EU accession negotiations.
In the course of the project, CEP foresees to train and educate up to five public servants that will get acquainted with the good practices and organizational solutions of the Slovenian public sector. Special attention will be devoted to the fields related to the European legislation, the demands of aquis communitaire and its implementation. Successful practical examples of Slovenian engagement as a full member of the EU, data bases of the EU and reporting to the European Commission will be examined in details.
The project is funded from the Program of International Development Cooperation of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of European Integration of the Republic of Serbia and implemented by the Centre for European Perspective.
11. 9. 2017 | IECEU, PR
IECEU (Improving the Effectiveness of Capabilities in EU Conflict Prevention) and WOSCAP (Whole of Society Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding) are together organizing their Final Conference “Effectiveness and Inclusivity of EU Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention” that will start with an evening reception on November 7 (venue tbc) and continue on November 8, 2017 at the Scotland House in Brussels, Belgium.
The conference will aim to present both H2020 projects’ research results and recommendations as well as to contribute to further debate and improvement in EU’s conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions through sustainable, comprehensive and innovative means.
The speakers will include representatives from various EU institutions such as the EEAS (PRISM), DEVCO, and the ESDC, alongside academics and peacebuilding practitioners from around the world, who have contributed to these projects. Civil society representatives and practitioners from different partner regions in the world, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Mali, Georgia, Yemen and Ukraine will also participate in these debates. Various EU Member States, as well as representatives from the UN and OSCE are also expected to take part.
The conference will specifically focus on:
• Main aspects of conflict prevention
• Integrated approach
• Effectiveness of EU missions and operations
• Potential for pooling and sharing in CSDP
• Civil-military cooperation in CSDP
• Inclusivity, local ownership and civil society perspectives in peacebuilding.
To find out more about the organizers and this conference, please visit the projects’ websites: IECEU & WOSCAP.
IECEU and WOSCAP are kindly inviting you to register for the conference here and are looking forward to welcome you in Brussels, Belgium on November 7 and 8, 2017 at the Scotland House.
For specific inquiries regarding the conference please write to [email protected].
8. 9. 2017 | Bled Strategic Forum, PR
The Bled Strategic Forum, the pre-eminent foreign policy event in Slovenia, ended on Tuesday after two days of reflections that focused on the technology-driven societal and economic change summed up by the forum’s title New Reality. Calls for common solutions to challenges posed by the changing world dominated the agenda of the first day, with senior Slovenian officials opening the forum by singling out challenges such as climate change and existing and emerging security threats.
Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec stressed that “we are facing new international actors” and “still struggle to address climate change and its negative global impact”. Prime Minister Miro Cerar noted that new challenges, which had “become the key driver of progress in society”, demanded new approaches.
The leader’s panel, the central event of the first day of proceedings, took a broad look at the technology-driven change shaping present-day society. While the participants found some cause for concern, they also exuded optimism.
The debate, featuring EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria, former Slovenian President Danilo Türk and Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, dedicated a lot of time to debating youths, specifically how they can be activated and engaged in policy-making, and how to create jobs.
Several policy proposals were put forward, but the overarching suggestion was that youths should get active and participate in the democratic process to achieve change; being active on social media is not enough.
With the forum coming just a day after North Korea conducted its latest nuclear test, some of the debates also touched on the escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said a cooperative rather than confrontational approach to existing challenges, including in North Korea and the Western Balkans, was needed.
Miroslav Lajčak, the president-elect for the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, touched on North Korea indirectly by saying that such issues needed to be addressed by the UN General Assembly as the most representative UN body.
The second day featured over a dozen panels dedicated to issues such as the EU’s future, the progress of the Western Balkans towards the EU, global nuclear governance, human rights in time of change and Twitter diplomacy.
The panel on the EU in the changed world argued that the EU is facing numerous challenges, including a crisis of trust and identity. The key to its future lies in convergence, integration, cooperation and attention to people’s needs.
The debate on global nuclear governance saw South Korean Foreign Ministry official Enna Park saying that condemning the nuclear tests conducted by North Korea was not enough. She called for concrete action by the international community.
At the panel on Western Balkans, a mainstay of the forum, foreign ministers from the region were in broad agreement that the EU accession process has a transformative effect on the countries. But they also warned that the accession was taking too long and ought to be more predictable.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein presented his office’s activity and human rights developments in the world at a special panel. He highlighted an erosion of commitments built on the experience of enormous human suffering in the first half of the 20th century and was very critical of the US president.
In line with this year’s motto, the business segment of the BSF focused on various aspects of innovation and how it affects and changes society. It touched on connectivity and leading the change, as well as the relation between government and business in the globalised and digitalised world.
A special panel was dedicated to tourism, in particular the collaborative economy.
The debate revolved around whether and how to regulate the new providers without suffocating the growth, how cities should deal with growing number of tourists, and what the new providers, especially big platforms such as AirBnB, should do to allow policy makers to enforce efficient and just regulation.
Youth BSF, the segment featuring young leaders, featured debates under the banned (Dis)connected Reality, which were condensed in a nine-point manifesto dealing with electronics, the environment and the economy.
While the BSF followed the established formula, there was one novelty this year as Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčak received a special accolade in being named a BSF distinguished partner for his enduring support of the purposes and principles of the forum.
