EUCTI Secretariat is not occupied only with supporting its partners that are delivering much needed courses to the mission members in the field, which might be the most visible activity. It also tries to stay up to date with the latest developments in the field of civilian crisis management, discusses key challenges with various stakeholders and plans future engagements that would fill-in the gaps and needs of the experts working in peace operations and missions.
Working visit to Brussels
That is why in the beginning of this week, Secretariat met with some members of the EUCTI Steering Group in Brussels. The aim of the Steering Group is to provide an overall guidance to the implementation of the project to ensure maximum coordination with EU services and to provide updates to the relevant Council Committee – CivCom. European External Action Service (EEAS), Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC) and European Commission representatives carefully listened about the progress that EUCTI has made in the last year, implemented activities and training that is planned for the second half of the year. They estimated that EUCTI is on track; the project seeks to maintain communication with several missions and other international stakeholders and deliver need-based training.
Second part of the visit to Brussels was dedicated to the High-Level Conference on “Shaping Civilian CSDP for the future” that was organized on the occasion of 15th anniversary of the CPCC at the European Parliament. Number of distinguished speakers presented the path CPCC has walked on in these years and discussed some challenges that they are facing – especially due to demanding realities in which the CSDP missions are operating. In the informal parts, Secretariat met with several relevant stakeholders, from the CivCom, CPCC and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) mission representatives, to other international players in the arena, such as the European Centre of Excellence for Civilian Crisis Management from Berlin. Debates were fruitful and they will fuel the future work of the Secretariat and its support to the consortium members on one hand and missions and operations on the other.
You can still check out the programme of the conference HERE.
