20. 11. 2018 | Helicopter, PR, Slovenian Development Assistance
Between 27 and 29 November, Centre for European Perspective kicks off the activities of capacity building of the Avio-Helicopter Unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro in the Development Cooperation Programme of the Republic of Slovenia with Montenegro.
Public services provided by the avio-helicopter unit and its responsiveness are of vital importance for the population of Montenegro which is why the country aims to improve its capabilities in the framework of this programme.
Slovenia and Montenegro will train flying in the high mountain ranges and exchange their experiences, which will contribute to the preparation of the programme proposal for the future development of the unit.
Project is part of CEP’s program activities executed in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia / Slovenian Police, financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia in the framework of Slovenia’s Development Cooperation.
Click here to read more about the project in Slovenian language. 
16. 11. 2018 | PR, U-LEAD: with Europe
U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme continues with Slovenia hosting the second international study visit on social and economic development of communities with diverse ethnic population next week. The visit will take place in Ljubljana and Prekmurje between 18 and 23 November 2018 with 20 public officials from Ukraine.
Participants will begin their visit with an introduction day at Jable Castle, meeting a number of Slovenian administrative and governing bodies, among them Local Self-Government Service at the Ministry of Public Administration and Office for National Minorities of the Republic of Slovenia. In the following days, the workshops will take you to the field, visiting Murska Sobota, Lendava, Roma settlement Pušča, Gornji Senik, Puconci and smaller towns and villages in Prekmurje region.
The five day workshop follows the fist study visit in September, when participants researched the municipalities of Izola, Koper, Domžale, Trst and Dolina in the west of Slovenia. Centre for European Perspective as the organizer of the study visit will present the autochthonous Slovenian national minority living in Slovenia’s four neighboring countries and autochthonous Italian and Hungarian national communities in Slovenia, as well as the Roma community. Since national minorities play an important role in all-round cross-border cooperation – important to Slovenia as a whole and its border areas, which constitute a major portion of Slovenia’s territory, it can serve as an example of good practice useful also for Ukraine and its development and decentralization progress.
The visit is taking place in the framework of the multi-donor action U-LEAD established by the European Union and its Member States Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Poland and Sweden. It is aimed to contribute to the establishment of multilevel governance that is transparent, accountable and responsive to the needs of the population of Ukraine. U-LEAD with Europe is supporting the Ukrainian Government, represented by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine (MinRegion) as a key political partner, in the coordination and implementation of the decentralisation and regional policy reforms. The Programme carries out demand-driven and targeted trainings for officials at the national, regional and local level.
16. 11. 2018 | Danube, PR
FIRST NATIONAL DANUBE PARTICIPATION DAY IN SLOVENIA
The Danube region brings together 14 countries and some of them are very close to Slovenia (geographically, also culturally and historically) and some of the most important economically important ones, as well as some more remote countries, which makes the macroregions a good tool to get to know them more closely. These are – besides Slovenia – Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, (part) of Germany, (part) of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and (part) of Ukraine.
Topics in which Slovenian project partners are involved are very different. Because we are stronger together, we decided to organize an informal meeting for all of us who are active in the Danube Region. Thus, at the half-day event, we brought together projects from various transnational and cross-border programs, all involving Slovenian partners. We exchanged experiences on communication, reaching target groups, influencing policy making, discussing how the projects can work together, getting to know the EuroAccess online search tool and finding out about the role of the Danube Strategy Point that has just been established. At the end, the participants were divided in groups according to their filed of work and exchanged opportunities for cooperation with colleagues from the same field.
The Center for European Perspective as Coordinator of the Priority Area 10 – Institutional Capacity and Cooperation – EU Strategy for the Danube Region organized a meeting where about 60 participants from different fields were gathered – NGOs, institutions, ministries, agencies, private companies, municipalities, institutes, faculties and universities. They agreed that such networking event was indispensable and that it would be reasonable to repeat it sooner and even in greater number.
Click here to read more about the project in Slovenian language.
8. 11. 2018 | Danube, PR
Do you know Danube macro region? And all the projects that Slovenian partners lead and co-create in the region? Danube is connecting a number of countries that are close to us (geographically, culturally and historically), but also some very important economic partners that are further away from us, which is why macro regions represent a good tool to get to know them better. The topics, on which Slovenian partners are working, are various and since we are stronger together, we believe we should get to know each other!
Centre for European Perspective as a coordinator of the PA 10 – Institutional Capacity and Cooperation of the EU Strategy for Danube region invites you to the 1st Danube National Day. We aim to gather everyone, working in the region in an informal environment and seek for synergies, share good practices and potentially make first steps towards our cooperation.
Danube National Day will take place on 15 November in City Hotel Ljubljana from 9.00 to 14.00. Find here the agenda (in Slovenian language).
6. 11. 2018 | PR
The European Union Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS) has highlighted the need for the EU to further improve its civilian missions, by pursuing better communication, information-sharing, joint reporting, analysis and response planning between member state embassies, EU delegations, Commission services, EU Special Representatives and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions.
The CIVILnEXt project supports the development of a solution addressing existing “fragmentation” and closing “gaps”, to provide civilian CSDP missions with the next generation of secure and cost-effective information systems. Fully informed of contributing initiatives in civilian CSDP and EU external action, the project will aim to develop solutions leveraging on the results extracted from projects funded by the EU. The common challenge in CIVILnEXt is to develop, test and validate a cost-effective and interoperable operation control platform (OCP) that will support the conduct of civilian CSDP missions. The OCP will improve coordination in EU external action through better information exchange, situational awareness and operation control in diverse theaters of operation.
Centre for European Perspective is a proud partner of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. Learn more about the CIVILnEXt project in our new video below!
CIVILnEXt PCP project from CIVILnEXt on Vimeo.
6. 11. 2018 | PR
On 26 October, a round table discussion „Main Challenges for Small States in Contemporary International Relations – Small States and International Economic Relations“ took place in Zagreb, organized by the Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO) and supported by Hanns Seidel Stiftung Zagreb.
The conference started with a welcome address by Aleksandra Markić Boban, Head of Project Office, Hanns Seidel Foundation Zagreb, and Dr. Sandro Knezović, Institute for Development and International Relations. The first panel addressed the challenges of Croatia in international economic relations, while the second panel focused on experience of neighbours.
In the latter panel, invited experts from the field of international politics and business discussed the political and economic challenges of small states in international relations and the position and perspectives of Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Portugal. They addressed their geopolitical position, coordination of state institutions and underdeveloped diplomatic networks at the European and global level, which were identified as key challenges of Croatia. Speakers agreed that globalization impacts relations immensely and that the consequences of the financial crisis still are present in the international relations of these countries. The EU and NATO should be the means and not the end-goals of the foreign policy of small countries in Europe.
Ivana Boštjančič Pulko of the Centre for European Perspective participated as a round table discussant and addressed the importance of the EU still being one of the leading economic and trading area of the world since the real power of the EU lies in its economy. Slovenian export industry presents the backbone of Slovenian economy and trade exchange between Slovenia and the EU amounts to almost 40 billion €, it is therefore important that the public opinion supports that strategic direction of the country but also remains open for trade exchange and investments from larger countries like Russia, China, the USA and others.
