Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” – Skopje (IDSCS) and Centre for European Perspective (CEP) Slovenia organised the event “2021 Slovenian Presidency with the Council of EU, the integration of WB and the role of the Visegrad countries” on 5 October in Ljubljana, Slovenia as part of the Think Balkans project.
The welcoming remarks were delivered by Ms Urška Volk Kovačič, Head of Bled Strategic Forum and Danube Programme and representative of the Centre for European Perspective, Mr Gjergj Murra, Executive Director of the Western Balkans Fund (WBF), Mr Marko Troshanovski, President of the Institute for Democracy (IDSCS) and Mr Peter Grk, Secretary General of the Bled Strategic Forum and National Coordinator for the Western Balkans at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia.
Ms Volk Kovačič welcomed the attendees and in her remarks endorsed the Think Balkans project as a mechanism that contributes to the enlargement process of the Western Balkans. “Think Balkans in particular is of a great importance for the enlargement process and it is a valuable project for the Centre for European Perspective (CEP) which was created with the goal of assisting Western Balkan countries on their road to the EU”, said Volk Kovačič.
Mr Murra emphasised the importance of setting mechanisms that will contribute to the on-going trust-building processes between institutions and think tank community in the region.
“Encouraged by the support and partnership relations of the project with MFA’s in the region, as relevant beneficiaries of your products, let me stress and highlight the advice for keeping as close as possible connections with the focal points in the respective ministries. I firmly believe that Western Balkans Fund may become the natural partner of the initiative, playing an essential role in developing think tanks and their cooperation in the region“, said Murra.
Mr Troshanovski talked about the main motivation behind the project, the prospective goals and upcoming activities in the period to come.
“The idea of Think Balkans is to move towards a permanent mechanism, and the support and recognition we get from the donor side, as well the MFAs and our partners in the consortium, is very much encouraging. The mechanism aims to create more formalised and institutional platform that will bring the region closer”, stated Troshanovski
Mr Grk stressed the importance of strategic importance of the WB for the future of the EU the enlargement process for the WB and positioning them as equal partners.
“There is a need for substantial transformation of the region, not just economic but social, better rule of law, protection of human rights, and this can only be achieved through active and serious enlargement process. The Slovenian presidency aimed towards bringing back the light, focus and strategic discussion on the region”, said Grk.
The first panel addressed the topic of European Union’s revised enlargement methodology and the future of the Western Balkan. Mr Dragan Tilev, State Counsellor for Support of the EU Membership Negotiations at the Secretariat for EU affairs and Associate Researcher at the Institute for Democracy (IDSCS), Ms Nedžma Džananović Miraščija, Professor at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Sarajevo and Researcher at the Humanity in Action, Ms Jelica Minić, Vice-President of the European Movement in Serbia (EMiNS), Mr Tomas Strazay, Director of the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA) and Ms Jana Juzova, Research Fellow at the EUROPEUM- Institute for European Policy shared their perspective on the topic.
Each of the panelists addressed different aspect of the New or Revised Methodology and their perspective of its impact over the WB enlargement process. Tilev discussed the future of the New Enlargement Methodology and whether it will become the new hope for the WB or the labyrinth with no exit. Minić presented her perspective on how the New Methodology will reflect on Serbia accession process to the EU. Džananović talked about the impact of the revised methodology on Bosnia and Hercegovina which still has not achieved the candidate status. Strazay stressed Visegrad countries and Slovenia’s role in advocating for the WB in the EU enlargement process and representing them at the Conference of the Future of Europe. Juzová added to the opinion of Visegrad being the voice for Western Balkan in the EU but also emphasised that EU should perceive the WB beneficial in terms of geopolitics and security for the whole continent.
The second panel touched the topic of reinventing regional cooperation under decreased EU leverage in the Western Balkans. The topic gathered Mr Nikola Mumin, Executive Director of the Politikon Network, Mr Ledion Krisafi, Researcher at the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS), Ms Donika Emini, Executive Director of the CiviKos Platform and member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG), Mr Zoran Nechev Head of the Centre for EU integration within Institute for Democracy (IDSCS), Mr Ferenc Nemeth, Research Fellow at the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) and Ms Marta Szpala, Senior Fellow at the Central European Department of the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW).
Mumin presented his perspective on regional cooperation and the benefits of it for Montenegro. However, he said that currently the regional cooperation for Montenegro seems to be on hold, despite the political discourse saying otherwise, especially in the case of the Open Balkan initiative where Montenegro is currently not taking part. Krisafi briefed on the Albanian perspective of regional cooperation stressing the fact the Albania focus has to be expended on increased regional cooperation with every country in the region. Emini emphasised that regional cooperation has to be present among the countries despite all of the on-going bilateral issues in the region. Presenting the Macedonian perspective, Nechev agreed that regional cooperation is essential for the region, not just as conditionality for EU accession but for a more connected, stronger and better functioning region. Nemeth suggested that regional cooperation is not valuable only prior to the EU accession but also after becoming a Member State, and following the example of Visegrad, WB6 needs to be in alliance before joining the EU. Finally, Szpala shared her thoughts on the fact that parliaments are playing a crucial part in increased regional cooperation and increasing their capacities for regional cooperation will be beneficial for the future of the region.
The concluding remarks were delivered by Mr Marko Troshanovski, President of IDSCS. The panels were moderated by Mr Zoran Nechev, Head of the Centre for EU integration within IDSCS and Ms Ana Novak, Project Manager at the Centre for European Perspective in Slovenia.
The TalentMagnet consortium is happy to present the third eNewsletter of the project!
Fifteen months of the project have already gone by and the consortium has created important outputs and achieved great progress with the Practical Guide to Talent attraction and retention and the training for writing the Local Talent attraction and retention plans.
The most important activity in this period happened this September: the partnership of project TalentMagnet met in person for the first time at the 3rd SC meeting, in Nyíregyháza. Until this meeting, we only had online meetings, which are – as we all know – not the same as meetings in person.
But we won’t spoil more about the content of the eNewsletter – you can read it here.
The development cooperation of the Republic of Slovenia with the Republic of Serbia is proceeding successfully. It is expected that between 12 and 16 October 2021 a field visit of organizational units in the Bor, Pirot, Požarevac and Zaječar police administrations is planned in Serbia with the aim of facilitating the involvement in the use of patrol management systems, implementation of expert assistance in deployment and on-site counselling.
Patrol management is an important part of the police response to people’s needs when their lives, their safety or property are at stake, and the speed of response can save lives.
The project is part of the program activities of international development cooperation, financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and the Police of the Republic of Slovenia.
Further information:
Andreja Dolničar Jeraj
Programme Director
Centre for European Perspective
Slovensko razvojno sodelovanje s Policijo Republike Srbije se uspešno nadaljuje
Razvojno sodelovanje Republike Slovenije z Republiko Srbijo uspešno poteka. Predvidoma med 12 in 16. oktobrom 2021 je v Srbiji načrtovana izvedba terenskega obiska organizacijskih enot na področju policijskih uprav Bor, Pirot, Požarevac in Zaječar s ciljem spremljanja vključevanja uporabe sistema za upravljanje patrulj, izvajanja strokovne pomoči pri uvajanju in svetovanja na licu mesta.
Upravljanje patrulj je pomemben del odziva policije na potrebe ljudi, ko je ogroženo njihovo življenje, njihova varnost ali premoženje, hitrost odziva pa lahko reši življenje.
Projekt je del programskih aktivnosti mednarodnega razvojnega sodelovanja, ki ga financira Ministrstvo za zunanje zadeve Republike Slovenije in ga izvajamo v sodelovanju z Ministrstvom za notranje zadeve in Policijo Republike Slovenije.
From 5 to 7 October 2021 in Portorož in Slovenia, Centre for European Perspective will organise the second capacity-building training on countering disinformation.
We will bring together representatives of government, civil society and media from all 6 countries in the Western Balkans. With the input from experts, role plays and simulations, the training is aimed at enhancement of resilience and encourages further cooperation of the six countries in the Western Balkans against disinformation.
Project “Strengthening societal resilience and countering foreign perpetrated disinformation in the Western Balkans” is financed by the National Endowment for Democracy and Slovenian Development Aid fund (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia).
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.
Part of Slovenia’s development aid to North Macedonia in the period 2021-2022 is intended to increase the capacity of communication in the negotiation process, for Chapter 24. This is a chapter that defines issues of justice, freedom and security and the field of internal affairs. It is fundamental for negotiations since negotiations begin and end with Chapters 23 and 24. Slovenia is thus upgrading its support to North Macedonia, which is provided in the field of financial investigations.
North Macedonia is waiting to set a date for the start of negotiations with the EU and is in the phase of intensive preparations for negotiations, but at the same time facing the challenge of how to enable the most efficient and inclusive negotiation process.
The effectiveness of the negotiation process is particularly affected by the capacities of the members of the Chapter 24 working group and their teamwork. The working group needs reliable interaction in the field of content (alignment with the acquis), supported by appropriate communication at all levels, from internal, external, horizontal and vertical. Preparations for the strengthening of the capacity of the working group have recently gained new, accelerated momentum with the desire for activities in North Macedonia to take place shortly, 28-30 September 2021 if possible, even before the situation regarding Covid-19 prevents this.
The project is part of the programme activities of Slovenia’s Development Cooperation Programme financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia.
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) .
From August 29th 2021 until August 31st2021 , Bled (Slovenia) was once more the meeting point for young leaders, who in the scope of the Young Bled Strategic Forum and Bled Strategic Forum framework joined forces, shared their creativity and ideas in order to contribute their piece of the puzzle (as active citizens) to the challenges (or rather said) opportunities of today and tomorrow, that civil society, decision-makers, private sector, members of academia and all members of society will need to address jointly, with strong voices and decisive actions, to secure a prosperous Future of Europe.
A group of 40 participants, trainers and organisers from the countries of Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and the United States of Americaparticipated in an intensive programme of capacity building and exchange of ideas through workshops, panel discussions, networking and other interactive activities the Young BSF is known for. The Programme was prepared in close cooperation with an international group of trainers and experts, who have extensive experience in the field of European Union policy, regional cooperation and the perspective of the Western Balkans region, economy and employability, resilience and recovery (in the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic), climate change and green transformation, civil society engagement in decision making and other topics.
Young participants contributed their voices and vision through the preparation of a joint declaration on the Future of Europe they desire, deserve and wish to help create, that will be further supported and promoted within the Conference on the Future of Europe and the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The Young BSF programme began on Sunday 29th of August at Bled (Slovenia) with introductory remarks presented by Mr. Peter Grk, Secretary-General of the Bled Strategic Forum, Ms Katja Geršak, Executive Director of the Centre for European Perspective, Mr Jernej Grahor, BSF Project Manager (Responsible for Young Bled Strategic Forum) and Ms Dafina Peci, Young Bled Strategic Forum Master of Ceremony.
On Monday, 30th of August 2021 the programme continued with workshops structured on decisive elements of creating an inclusive and engaging environment for the active participation of youth, and discussions on global challenges where perspectives (ideas) of youth need to be further supported. The first session was prepared by Ms Krisela Hackaj, Western Balkans Youth Cooperation Platform Executive Director and Ms Gresa Smolica, Cooperation and Development Institute Project Officer. Participants explored different initiatives, strategies and projects on the topic of economy and development, leading to the drafting of recommendations on how to take action towards youth participation in sectoral policymaking. Mr Jan Kulenović, Regional Youth Cooperation Office Director of Programs continued with a workshop on the topic of diversity, working on the important roles and opportunities of actors within society in the process of advancing the implementation of tolerance and inclusivity. Building on the broad experience and knowledge of V4SDG on the topic of climate change and green transformation, Ms Lilla Judit Bartuszek, V4SDG Secretary-General, engaged the participants in a discussion on the potential for cooperation, joint opportunities and responsibilities of promoting sustainability through cross-sectoral opportunities and actions towards a long term vision. The evening programme of Young BSF Day one was devoted to a structured approach towards the drafting of a joint Young BSF declaration, and an evening Night owl session presented by Mr Matt Jacobs, Digital Coordinator at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and Coordinator of the European Digital Diplomacy Exchange Programme. An open discussion tackled the challenges of successful digital communication and social listening, that within the opportunities of the digital environmental space, hold the opportunity of further bridging the gap between decision-makers (or institutions they represent) and civil society, the opportunity to in effect contribute to the safeguarding of digital resilience and information integrity protection.
On Tuesday, 31st of March the intensive programme continued with presentations of partnering organisations. The first session foresaw the implementation of the Third Fundamental Rights Dialogue, organised by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in the form of a live event streamed on social media and online platforms. Participants cooperated with Mr Michael O´Flaherty, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, in an open discussion on topics of fundamental rights protection and advancement. The discussion was moderated by Ms Dafina Peci, Young BSF Master of Ceremony. Dr Staša Mesec, Government Office for Development and Cohesion Policy and European Union Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) and Mr Jernej Grahor, European Union Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) Priority Area 10 Coordinator continued the programme of the day, and engaged the participants in a workshop on civil society engagement in decision making. Young leaders began by exploring the opportunities for cooperation and work within the established structures of the Macroregional strategies, moving towards group work on specific topics closely supported by the Danube and Adriatic-Ionian region, discussing opportunities for closer engagement of civil society and youth in decision making on a local, regional and transnational level. The first-afternoon session was prepared in cooperation with the Regional Cooperation Council and the Western Balkans Youth Lab, presented by Ms Petra Balažič, Regional Cooperation Council Political Advisor. The discussion included the opportunities for better cooperation on a regional level as within the Western Balkans six economies and a bridge between regions as the WB6 together with the European Union, with a strong emphasis on economical cooperation, mobility and other cross-cutting topics that contribute to the creation of a more prosperous environment for youth, as well as contribute to progress and advancement of the region as a whole. The final session of the day included a panel discussion organised in cooperation with the Youth Council of Slovenia. Participants discussed the topic of youth participation in the European Union and exchanged their ideas with the session moderator Mr Patrik Bole, National Youth Council of Slovenia Vice President for International Cooperation, Ms Lucija Karnelutti, United Nations Youth Delegate of Slovenia, Mr Jaša Levstik, Project Manager of the 94th International Session of European Youth Parliament – Ljubljana 2021 and Ms Tjaša Božič representing the Institute for Political Management.
The programme of the Young BSF continued with the participation of young leaders in the proceedings of the Bled Strategic Forum as active participants of the workshops, panel discussions and meetings taking place between September 1st and September 2nd 2021.
The Young Bled Strategic Forum and Bled Strategic Forum platform once more wish to express gratitude and admiration to the sponsor and partner organisation, who contributed their expertise, knowledge and trust in the creation of a comprehensive programme. The organisation of the Young Bled Strategic Forum would not be possible without the support of the Regional Cooperation Council programmeco-funded by the European Union, The Danube Transnational Programme, Triglav d.d. and the Central European Initiative.
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.
