{"id":13230,"date":"2021-11-09T10:35:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T10:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idscs.org.mk\/en\/?p=13230"},"modified":"2022-07-27T13:11:43","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T13:11:43","slug":"europeum-and-idscs-co-organised-a-study-visit-in-prague-as-part-of-think-balkans-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idscs.org.mk\/en\/2021\/11\/09\/europeum-and-idscs-co-organised-a-study-visit-in-prague-as-part-of-think-balkans-project\/","title":{"rendered":"EUROPEUM and IDSCS co-organised a study visit in Prague as part of Think Balkans project"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the \u2018Cooperation Instrument for the Western Balkans Think Tanks \u2013 THINK BALKANS\u2019 project, between 2 and 6 November in Prague, EUROPEUM – Institute for European Policy and Institute for Democracy \u201cSocietas Civilis\u201d Skopje coordinated the first on-site study visit by the Western Balkans (WB6) researchers to the Visegrad Group (V4) capitals.<\/p>\n

Researchers from North Macedonia (IDSCS) and Serbia (EminS) together with their local V4 think tank host EUROPEUM attended meetings with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (MFAs), Think Visegrad representatives and participated in closed experts discussion on the topic of \u201cEU-Western Balkans Summit – The Morning After\u201d co-organised by the Embassy of Slovenia in Prague and EUROPEUM.<\/p>\n

In Prague, the researchers Zoran Nechev, Senior Researcher and Head of the Centre for European Integrations within IDSCS, Anamarija Velinovska, Junior Researcher at IDSCS and Milan Vranjkovic, Project Coordinator at EminS were hosted by Jana Juzova, Research Fellow at the EUROPEUM and Ziga Faktor, Head of EUROPEUM\u2019s and Think Visegrad\u2019s Brussels Office.<\/p>\n

During the meetings, the participants and hosts of the study visit presented the goals, deliverables, and upcoming activities of the Think Balkans project and called for future political and financial support through International Visegrad Fund and Western Balkans Fund, necessary for the official establishment of the permanent mechanism for cooperation between WB6 expert community and WB6 MFAs. The study visit was also an opportunity for the WB6 researchers to learn from the experience of the Think Visegrad platform and to see it implemented in place.<\/p>\n

The first goal of the study visit was to ascertain the established connection and trust between the civil society and the institutions within the Think Visegrad platform. The researchers discussed\u00a0 these relations with the representatives of the state institutions in Prague including Igor Proch\u00e1zka, Deputy Director at Department for South and South-East Europe at the MFA of Czech Republic, Tom\u00e1\u0161 Pet\u0159\u00ed\u010dek, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director of Progressive Analyst Institute, Pavel Teli\u010dka, Chief negotiator of Czech accession to the EU, former EU Commissioner and former Vice-President of the European Parliament and Luk\u00e1\u0161 Hadrava of the Department of Coordination of EU policies at the Office of the Government.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the researchers had the opportunity to discuss the Think Balkans mechanism in details by the think tanks which are part of, or have worked on papers commissioned through the Think Visegrad platform. The researchers met with Alica Kizekov\u00e1, Coordinator of Think Visegrad for The Institute of International Relations (IIR) Prague, Asya Metodieva, Research Fellow at IIR, Michal Ko\u0159an, President of the Board and founder of the Global Arena Research Institute and V\u00edt Dost\u00e1l and Pavel Havl\u00ed\u010dek from the Association for International Affairs.<\/p>\n

Finally, the researchers attended the expert discussion \u201cEU-WB Summit – The Morning After\u201d at the Charles University. The key-note speaker at the discussion was Milena Hrdinkov\u00e1, State Secretary for European Affairs at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic while Peter Grk, National Coordinator for Western Balkans at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Janina H\u0159eb\u00ed\u010dkov\u00e1, Special Envoy for the Western Balkans at the MFA of the Czech Republic, H.E. Alexis Dutertre, Ambassador of France to the Czech Republic and Zoran Nechev, Senior Researcher at IDSCS took part at the conference as panelists. The event was moderated by Jana Juzova, Research Fellow at EUROPEUM.<\/p>\n

This study visit is the first of the four study visits in the Visegrad Group capitals. The WB6 researchers are expected to attend study visits in Budapest (8-12 November), Bratislava (29 November – 03 December) and Warsaw (13-17 December).<\/p>\n

This project is financially supported by the\u00a0International Visegrad Fund<\/a> and implemented by IDSCS in coordination with the partners\u00a0European Movement in Serbia (EMinS)<\/a>,\u00a0Platforma CiviKos<\/a>\u00a0from Kosovo*,\u00a0Politikon Network<\/a>\u00a0from Montenegro,\u00a0Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS)<\/a>\u00a0from Albania,\u00a0Humanity in Action<\/a>\u00a0from Bosnia and Herzegovina,\u00a0Centre for European Perspective (CEP)<\/a>\u00a0from Slovenia,\u00a0Centre for Eastern Studies from Poland (OSW)<\/a>,\u00a0Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade from Hungary (IFAT)<\/a>, the\u00a0Research Centre of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)<\/a>\u00a0from Slovakia, and\u00a0EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy (EUROPEUM)<\/a>\u00a0from the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n