15. 5. 2017 | Danube, PR, Youth
Centre for European Perspective has made a step towards enhanced cooperation among young Danube experts in Maribor, between 10th and 12th May 2017. Young and potential entrepreneurs were invited to international conference PODIM that shows a great example of multi-level governance – cooperation of municipality, state and private sector that share a common goal.
PODIM conference is a leading start-up conference in Alps-Adriatic region that has been first time organized 37 years ago! In this time, it developed from a smaller entrepreneurial conference to leading gathering in the region. It shows how actors from various fields and levels can work together and reach much more than they ever could alone.
CEP as PA10 coordinator hosted 20 young entrepreneurs from ten Danube countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Montenegro, Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine). They were selected on the basis of the PODIM Challenge call that initially received 131 entrepreneurial ideas. Young entrepreneurs had to present their idea, team and business plan. Among over 200 start-ups from the Danube region and wider, four teams (from Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine) got into the semi-finals where 20 best start-up ideas pitched in front of the experts and investors. Slovakian start-up – Unigraph & Ingen.io that developed a layer of artificial intelligence to analyse texts and understanding, based on internal knowledge graph, which stores information about each facility in the world in which we live – got into finals and was voted as second best in the PODIM challenge.
Participants had a chance to listen to the inspiring and content-rich speeches and workshops, delivered by serial start-uppers, 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 mind-set. At the same time they had opportunity to meet Slovenian national start-up organization as a facilitator of cooperation within Slovenia, municipality representatives as well as various stake-holders from private and public sectors.
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?
28. 4. 2017 | BIH - Entrepreneurs, Kosovo - Entrepreneurs, PR, Slovenian Development Assistance
For the third year in a row, Centre for European Perspective (CEP) is enablingouth from the region to attend the leading start-up meeting in the region with an international dimension, PODIM Conference. The project started three years ago in the framework of Slovenia’s development cooperation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and spread its scope to Kosovo last year.
During the project, young entrepreneurs from BiH and Kosovo prepare their entrepreneurial idea, improve it during the preparation phase in which a workshop takes place in Sarajevo and Prishtina, and then present it in their application through which we choose the best ten proposals per country.
Our experience show that the workshops that are organized in the recipient countries in the spring, contribute to the quality and quantity of the applications. The workshops proved to be useful as the entrepreneurial applications tend to be better year by year, which can also be seen in the ratio of the start-ups that are presented in the Start-up catalogue of PODIM Conference. The catalogue is prepared for the investors that attend the conference and raises awareness about the quality of the start-ups that are present throughout the conference. Among the participants of the conference, one third consists of investors, one third of start-ups and one third of bigger corporations from the region, seeking for corporate partnerships. PODIM Conference will take place on 10 and 11 May in Maribor, Slovenia. Our selected participants will participate at the conference, take part in the PODIM Challenge, present their ideas in the PODIM Start-up catalogue and be able to meet investors and potential partners at the one-on-one meetings.
This year, we received 27 applications from BiH and a record number, 48 from Kosovo. The commission, consisting of the experts in the field of start-up sector, assessed the ideas and invited the best 10 teams from BiH and the best 10 from Kosovo. CEP’s role is to enable the teams to select two team members who get the transportation, accommodation, ticket to the PODIM Conference, transfer around Slovenia and an additional day of training at the Jable Castle free of charge.
At the Jable Castle, young participants get to hear more about Slovenian start-up environment. This year they will listen to the representatives of the Start:up Slovenija team, that represents an association on the national level – a concept of start-up cooperation that is yet unknown in BiH and Kosovo. Positive Agenda for Youth in the Western Balkans will be presented by the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a broader discussion will be established on the topic of their experiences, needs, expectations and challenges that they face in their home countries in the field of youth entrepreneurship. The 3-day project will conclude in Ljubljana, where the participants will visit the ABC Accelerator, get to know their vision and work and get information about their projects in the Balkans.
We widen participants’ knowledge about entrepreneurship and give them an insight into the process of development of the project from the initial idea to the launch and potential founding of their own company, which is one of potential approaches to addressing the issue of unemployment and underemployment in the wider region. Youngsters get an opportunity to meet potential investors and corporate partners and last but not least, the entrepreneurs with the same mindset and entrepreneurial enthusiasm, which is the key to the further cooperation that can transcend the state borders in the region of Western Balkans.
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.
21. 4. 2017 | Albania - Local Governments, PR, Slovenian Development Assistance
This week Centre for European Perspective (CEP) conducts the first workshop this year in the framework of the project ‘Assistance to Albanian municipalities in the preparation of the EU and other international projects’ in Albanian Vlorë.
The training is attended by 27 representatives of local and regional authorities as well as representatives of central public institutions and non-governmental organizations which design and implement projects at the operational level. The workshop started on 18th April with a networking event, followed by the official opening with presentation of project ideas on 19th April. Slovenian trainers, Slavka Zupan and Dimitrij Pur and their Albanian counterpart Elvana Zhezha guide the participants through the whole workshop, starting with the (EU) funding opportunities for Albania and the complete project cycle, from identification, formulation and financing of the project. The workshop will finish today. The second session of this workshop will follow in May 2017.
The project initially started in 2012 with a focus on strengthening the capacities of the Albanian Institutions for disbursement of funds from Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). Training of Albanian representatives was carried out as a study visit at the CEP premises at Jable castle. Since then, CEP has conducted 8 workshops on project preparation for civil servants. Last year’s follow up on training shows, that 71 project applications were submitted with 27 projects awarded (these figures are from December 2016).
CEP is implementing the workshop in cooperation with the Balkan Center for Cooperation and Development (BCCD), PLGP project of 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.
