The three-day training on Digital Communications in Civilian Crisis Management organised as a part of the European Union Civilian Training Initiative has been successfully concluded!
Over the past three days, the participants of our training took part in interactive lectures on various topics that are crucial for digital communicators ranging from digital security to digital rhetoric.
We’re glad to have cooperated with participants from the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia and European Union Delegation in Georgia who provided proactive and substantial contributions to the training.
This training concludes the first module of the training on Digital Communications in Civilian Crisis Management. The second module will be implemented in a residential format and is expected to take place sometime in the spring of 2022.
We would like to wish the participants lots of success in achieving their digital communication objectives and we would also like to express our gratitude to our fantastic team and lecturers for implementing the training.
The Centre for European Perspective will implement a three-day training on Digital Communications in Civilian Crisis Management as a part of the European Union Civilian Training Initiative (EUCTI), which provides tailor-made training activities for individuals working in the EU’s CSDP and other international missions (OSCE, UN, AU and others). The training is designed to increase the awareness of mission communication experts on the efficient use of information technology to enhance missions’ communication performance.
To effectively communicate in a strategic manner, solely acquiring technological hardware and software is not enough. Missions need to recalibrate their communication efforts and address the question of “why to communicate” in greater detail, develop communication strategies based on their findings and make necessary organisational shifts, which ultimately lead to increased support of the domestic and foreign public towards the mission. Thus, the course aims to strengthen the overall performance of missions’ communication efforts, which enhance the mission’s legitimacy.
The upcoming training addresses the needs of EUMM Georgia with participation extended to experts serving in other international missions and organisations in Georgia. Due to Covid-19 related restrictions, the course has been designed in a two-module structure. The upcoming training, which will be held online between 16th and 18th November 2021 represents the first training module and will provide the participants with fundamental theoretical knowledge. The procured knowledge will provide participants with the basis to successfully participate in the training’s second module, which is more practically oriented.
Centre for European Perspective is organizing a Training of Trainers course in a residential format at Jable castle from 29. 11. to 3. 12. 2021. We’re excited that after a series of online courses we’ll be able to welcome participants in person.
Various civilian as well as police experts deployed or waiting to be deployed to EU Common Security and Defence Policy missions will get together to gain the skills required for a proactive and attentive interaction between them as trainers and their potential audiences by strengthening their didactical and methodological skills. The participants will learn about verbal and non-verbal modes of communication and how to apply them in practice through interactive activities and other sessions aimed at enhancing capabilities and skills that can be used in their further roles as trainers more generally.
The training is organised as part of the European Union Police and Civilian Services Training (EUPCST) that provides tailor-made training activities for individuals working in the EU’s CSDP and other international missions.
Peace Operations Training Centre (POTC) has in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia this year dedicated lots of energy for creating a new course Community and People Centred Approach of which the pilot course will be delivered next year. The first two Community and People Centred Approach Course workshops were attended by representatives of defence policy, civil defence, military, police, international development cooperation, humanitarian organizations, project management experts, and others.
At the first workshop in March, participants were introduced to the important contributions of civilian functional experts to the overall military objective of the operation, analysed the past and current international operations and missions of NATO, EU and UN through local (so-called micro) projects, and evaluated the relevance, validity and feasibility of the strategy for participation in international operations and missions. At the second workshop in June, two inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral pilot projects were prepared for local communities and population, which will be implemented in practice in the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the coming years. Both projects will try to fill the gap that appears below the level of city, regional and central authorities. A comprehensive approach, establishing and maintaining a network of relationships with local communities and local population, is the focus of the Community and People Centered Approach Course.
In December, the third and last Community and People Centred Approach workshop will take place where participants, with the help of experts from NATO, UN, EU and OSCE, will design a high-quality course, which will in the future equip civilian functional experts with legal, strategic, doctrinal and tactical documentary bases for action (coordination, cooperation, collaboration) at the level of local communities and the population in missions (in the framework of implementation of various projects and other forms of action at the local level).
Between 15 and 17 September, the Centre for European Perspective conducted an online pilot training on the Protection of Cultural Heritage in EU missions and operations.
The training was designed for a wide range of participants who will be deployed to EU international missions and operations in third countries in the near future. Following the conclusion of the pilot training, all content and participating lecturers will be assessed and evaluated. Based on the conclusions of the evaluation, the content and structure of the training will be standardized and permanently available to participants from EU Member States.
The protection of cultural heritage is increasingly on the agenda of international organizations as well as relevant European Union bodies. In June, the EU Council adopted its conclusions, which also declared the protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage among the European External Action Service’s foreign policy priorities. Based on coordination with European partners and a preliminary needs analysis prepared by the Center for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Italian Carabinieri, the Center for European Perspective designed a new training course and recently conducted a pilot training. Throughout the training, participants were familiarised with various forms of cultural heritage and differing factors threatening cultural heritage. The participants were acquainted with the international legal framework that provides the legal basis for the protection of cultural heritage sites in crisis areas, learned about basic approaches and tools for fieldwork and concrete experiences of civilian and military representatives in EU missions and operations who were responsible for the protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage during previous deployments.
The three-day training was conducted in English. It was attended by representatives of ten European countries; Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Cyprus, Belgium, Romania, the Netherlands and Slovenia. The participants held varying degrees of previous experience with the topic of the training. Some were introduced to the topic for the first time, while others already had previous experiences with the protection of cultural heritage and attended the training to deepen their knowledge. Participants were active, and the online training format did not represent a significant barrier for participants.
Based on the evaluations of the participating lecturers, participants, and our own evaluation, we are convinced that the pilot training was a great success. The participants praised the experience of the lecturers and the contents of the training being based on concrete information from the field. Based on the feedback future trainings will be carried out in a similar manner to the pilot training.
After successfully delivered two training courses on Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in peace operations and missions (November 2020 and May 2021), Centre for European Perspective (CEP) is further actively involved in empowering women in the field of peace and security. From 14 to 17 September 2021, a series of online workshops on Negotiation techniques and women empowerment was carried out by the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) in coordination with CEP and with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia.
This series of workshops were organized for representatives of the Venezuelan democratic forces who will directly or indirectly participate in international negotiations, mediation, and conflict resolution processes. The program consisted of ground-setting and advanced workshops, where the participants examined the particularities of and advantages for women’s involvement in conflict resolution, negotiation, and mediation processes, analyse negotiation process from a gender perspective (including the analysis of strategies, methods, techniques for negotiation, communication, and influence), and conducted practical exercises to practice the application of various negotiation components.
With the newly acquired knowledge in the field of negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution, will the representatives of the Venezuelan democratic forces, be able to actively participate in these processes and thus increase the representation of women in these areas and bring challenges faced by women in times of humanitarian crises and conflicts to the peace agreements.
Virtual workshop on negotiation techniques and women´s empowerment continues the activities of Centre for European Perspective – CEP, aimed at the empowerment of women that began within the Peace Operations Training Centre and EUPCST project.
The activities are supported by Slovenia’s Development Cooperation Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and carried out together with the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) .
Virtual workshop on negotiation techniques and women´s empowerment continues the activities of Centre for European Perspective – CEP, aimed at the empowerment of women that began within the Peace Operations Training Centre and EUPCST project.
The activities are supported by Slovenia’s Development Cooperation Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and carried out together with the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) .