On December 5th POTC’s Program Council successfully concluded its 4th session with an agreement on an ambitious lineup of upcoming courses and trainings.
The session included an overview of this year’s activities, the proposed outline of activities in 2023, future financing, and recommendations for the programme ahead.
The Program Council expressed satisfaction with the work done by POTC in 2022. The Council Members shared their priorities regarding upcoming activities and also discussed ways of improving inter-departmental cooperation in order to support POTC’s future work and particularly the delivery of activities that require a greater deal of support from the official institutions.
The Program Council concluded with an official confirmation of the planned activities for 2023. The 2023 Work Programme will be published shortly.
Part of our Peace and Security team attended the final EUPCST Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Between 22 and 24 November representatives of 23 Consortium partners and their coordinator, Royal Netherlands Marechaussee gathered to discuss past activities, the evaluation process and to officially close the project.
After three years (2019 – 2022) EUPCST project is nearing its end. During these three years Consortium members, comprised of national gendarmeries, police forces, and civilian organisations, trained 768 training participants. Among them 537 or 70 % were male and 231 or 30% were female, 50% had a police background, 25% were gendarmes, and 25% were civilians.
The overall aim of the project was to enable civilian crisis management mission and stabilization actions staff to work in a more efficient, effective, and sustainable manner to achieve their mandates. It facilitated capacity building within different organisations active in the security sector. It also allowed for international knowledge exchange, as members of different organisations trained together, and shared their expertise at international conferences and various workshops.
In the meanwhile, we were also busy preparing evaluation forms, gathering relevant information, and sharing it with relevant stakeholders within the Consortium as well as preparing yearly evaluation reports. The final task remains to draft the final evaluation report.
We are proud we were able to successfully contribute to equipping staff of police forces, gendarmeries, and civilians with the necessary skills for their participation in international crisis management operations of the European Union, the United Nations, the African Union, and other international organisations. We hope all will be able to use this knowledge and expertise to make the world a better place.
Between 9 and 11 November the EUCTI Secretariat, located at the Centre for European Perspective (CEP), traveled to Brussels for the second face-to-face partner meeting this year. They met with the representatives of EUCTI Consortium partners and with representatives of EU institutions. The in-person aspect of the meeting again proved to stir fruitful discussions on past and future (training) activities.
Alongside CEP, the representatives of the Austrian Centre for Peace (ACP), the Clingendael Institute, CMC Finland, Egmont Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), and Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF Berlin) attended the meeting. This time the Consortium was joined also by representatives of different EU institutions and services – European External Action Service (EEAS), Security and Defence Policy, the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC), and European Commission, Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI).
The meeting, organised on the premises of the Permanent Representation of Slovenia to the EU, was opened by Mr. Markko Kallonen, EUCTI project coordinator. After the presentations of recent EU foreign policy developments, the floor was opened to the project partners. They discussed past and future training activities, received updates from working groups, discussed other visibility activities, and made an activity plan for 2023.
CEP is looking forward to continued fruitful cooperation within the Consortium in implementing need-based training activities!
EUCTI in a Nutshell
The European Union Civilian Training Initiative (EUCTI) is a three-year-long EU-co-funded project that commenced its activities in January 2021. Its main objective is to contribute to the enhanced position of the EU as a peace actor. Ultimately, EUCTI aims to improve the life of people living in conflict-affected societies by developing and delivering need-based training to professionals working in international organisations active in the field of civilian crisis management.
Within the scope of the project, up to 27 training activities will be designed specifically for the mission personnel. The offered training, which is developed in coordination with the stakeholders, will be carried out free of charge in a flexible manner – either in a residential, online, or hybrid format. Several other project activities are foreseen, mainly related to the development of a new technology-enabled learning approach to the training, activities of two working groups on evaluation and standardization, as well as support for 3rd country training institutions. EUCTI consortium draws on the legacy of ENTRi project. The EUCTI consortium consists of eight renowned partners holding solid experience in developing and delivering civilian crisis management training.
Currently, there are 11 civilian and 7 military missions operating under the EU flag.
The past week, 21 participants attended the International Humanitarian Law & Military Practice Developments Training for Military Personnel where we delved into what is currently going in the international arena, the defence challenges ahead and took a look at Slovenia’s space outlook.
The training also took us to the Noordung Center in Vitanje where we discovered Slovenia’s defence capabilities connected to space. The training also included topics such as targetting according to international law, disruptive military technologies, and neurocognitive science in military and intelligence operations. No stone was left unturned and the participants received an extensive overview of current practices and future challenges.
This training would not have been possible without the cooperation of the Ministry of Defence.
Group photo at the Noordung Space CenterProfessor dr. Vasilka SancinSamo Selimović, POTC CoordinatorLecture at Noordung Space CenterBojan Pipenbaher, Head of Department
On Monday, the 7th of November, 25 trainees will join us at Jable Castle for the two-day International Humanitarian Law & Military Practice Developments Training for Military Personnel.
The two-day training will cover topics such as international humanitarian law, future disruptive technologies in the military field, neurocognitive science in military and intelligence operations, practical application of IHL, Slovenia’s defence capabilities connected to space and how digital technologies shape wars and geopolitical dynamics.
The training will also include a visit to the Noordung Center in Vitanje where we’ll take a closer look at Slovenia’s defence capabilities connected to space.
Several established lecturers will join us live or via teleconference, including:
prof. dr. Vasilka Sancin, University of Ljubljana;
dr. Simona Soare, European Union Institute for Security Studies;
dr. James Giordano, Institute for Biodefense Research;
Lt. Col. Maximilian Katz, NATO School Oberammergau;
Breda Bunič, Ministry of Defence;
and dr. Julian Ringhof, European Council on Foreign Relations.
The aim of the training is to go over current and future challenges of everyone working in the field of human rights and to take a closer look at military practice developments that are influencing events of today and tomorrow.
This past Friday (October 21st) the Peace Operations Training Centre (POTC), in collaboration with the Slovenian Ministry of Defence, successfully organised a refresher course for civil experts on the topic of Stabilisation and Reconstruction at Grad Jable.
The goal of the course was to review and upgrade the knowledge of civilian experts on civil-military cooperation happening on Slovenian missions abroad.
All in all 35 civilian experts attended the Stabilisation and Reconstruction refresher course. Diverse lecturers, who have returned from international missions, shared their insights from the ground, including:
presenting the changes in the international arena such as the fallout of the Afghanistan retreat;
the current work of Slovenians on international missions and operations like the cooperation in the Western Balkans;
past work done for KFOR;
many more topics and future post openings.
Afterwards, the civilian experts were engaged in a lively debate with the presenting experts, mainly wanting to know more about new developments from international missions and highlighting the importance of civilian experts on missions. The knowledge and experience shared during the course will hopefully contribute to future mission success.
Peace Operations Training Centre (POTC) would like to thank the Slovenian Ministry of Defence for their input and collaboration on this course.
