The fifth generation of Fellows within the European Fund for the Balkans “Fellowship Programme for Young Government Officials from the Western Balkans: Supporting Excellence and Leadership in Governance” gathered for the Introductory Seminar which is taking place in Berlin and Potsdam in the period between April 5 to April 16, 2013.
This Introductory seminar which is organized in cooperation with Potsdam Center for Policy and Management, offers an opportunity for meeting prominent lecturers and researchers and discussions about the current issues related to European Union but to the Global World as well.
The first part of the seminar is being held in Berlin, where the twenty selected Fellows will have a chance to discuss with the prominent guests about the expectations from the EU accession, administrative reforms in the Western Balkans, monetary union, human rights in the discourse of EU Integration and public service reform.
The Berlin part of the seminar was opened by the keynote speaker Dr. Erhard Busek, Coordinator of the South-Eastern Cooperative Initiative (SECI) and Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe who presented the new dimensions of regional cooperation in the Western Balkans by giving representative examples of the positive and negative experiences that occur in this specific region of Europe.
The cooperative spirit which was ignited by Mr. Erhard Busek visions, was later on continued in the Berlin City Rally where the fellows, divided into 4 groups, were supposed to give their best in producing the best results for the few tasks that were presented to them by the instructors.
This getting to know each other phase and group dynamic was continued on the Community Day and the Introduction sessions which included teambuilding exercises and interviews in couples.
After the presentation of the European Fund for the Balkans Community Network, the new fellows had an opportunity to meet two last year fellows of the same programme Jelena Jevtovic (Serbia) and Iva Seler (Croatia) who enthusiastically shared their personal experiences from their participation in the Fellowship Programme for Young Government Officials from the Western Balkans in the generation 2011/2012.
During the Berlin part of the seminar, the fellows will hear a string of interesting lectures on different subjects like the “Democracy in crisis” (Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sophia), “Lessons of the Arab Spring” (Sigrid Faath, Associate Fellow, German Council on Foreign Relations, Berlin), “Between transatlantic and Eurasian affinities: Where does the WB fit into a multipolar world?" (Dusan Reljic, Senior Associate, German Institute for Internatonal and security affairs, Berlin).
The presention on the “Role of internet in activism” (Jon Worth, Founder and partner in techPolitcs LLP) and the lecture on “Free journalism and transparency” in the Multimedia company Axel-Springer will round up the first wave of the interesting lectures.
The German Day which will be held in the premises of the Robert Bosch Foundation and will include lectures on the “Political landscape in Germany” from journalist’s perspective (Steffen Hebestreit, Frankfurter Rundschau), “German Politics towards South-Eastern Europe” (Nikolaus Graf Lambsdorff, Special Envoy for South-Eastern Europe and Turkey, Federal Foreign Office) and “3rd Generation of East-Germany: Growing up in a transforming society” (Book presentation and discussion – Micha Krause, Member of the Executive Board, Dritte Generation Ostdeutschland).
The Federal Chancellery will be the venue where the fellows will hear the lecture “Derregulation and cutting the red tape in Germany" by Dominik Böllhoff, Head of Secretary, National Regulatory Control Council.
The last day of the Berlin seminar is reserved for the lecture on the “Monetary Union-to join or not to join” (Zoltan Pogatsa, Insitute for European studies/Faculty of Economics, University of Western Hungary) and the "Administrative Reform and good governance in the Western Balkans" (Aqim Emurli, Training Manager at ReSpa,BiH and Dejan Buha, Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office,BiH).
The panel discussion in relation with the CDRSEE’s successful regional TV project “Vicnities” will involve the fellows in the debate “Vicinites in the air” on topics like prejudice and identity (Zvezdana Kovac, Editor-in-Chief of “Vicinites, Nenad Sebek, Executive Director of the CDRSEE, Ms. Biljana Vankovska, a university professor, columnist and blogger, Sandi Blagonic, cultural anthropologist, Ernst Reichel, Federal Foreign Office Stability Pact funds, Germany).
For the closing of the Berlin seminar, Kristof Bender (Deputy Chairman, ESI) will discuss the challenges the Western Balkans face on their path towards EU membership and what role regional cooperation can play. The fellows will also see the ESI documentary “Twilight of Heroes – Croatia, Europe and the International Tribunal”. It tells the story how Croatia broke out of its isolation, faced its recent past, opened up to the rest of Europe and its neighbours and in the end convinced sceptic EU members that it was ready to join the EU. The film, part of the award-winning “Return to Europe” film series, is also a reminder how the European idea can be an inspiration for dramatic change.
After the Berlin part of the programme the Group will move to Potsdam.
The Fellowship Programme for Young Government Officials from the Western Balkans – Supporting Excellence and Leadership in Governance is EFB programme dedicated to the development and contributing of effective and efficient state administrations in the region by offering a tailor-made fellowship and training programme for highly qualified young professionals from the central government (including entity and cantonal level government in Bosnia Herzegovina and regional level government of Vojvodina in Serbia) of the countries of the Western Balkans.
The Fellowship Programme is designed to support institutional reform in the Western Balkans while supporting links between administrations in the region and individual networking.
The Programme is specifically focused on the civil servants from the central government (including entity and cantonal level government in Bosnia Herzegovina and regional level government of Vojvodina in Serbia) who have several years of professional experience in public administration and have already assumed initial managerial responsibilities or are preparing for a position of leadership.
