THIS CONTENT HAS BEEN ARCHIVED

ESDC/Eastern Partnership: European week in Kyiv – three events, 600 participants

26.10.2018
Teaser

The biggest ESDC event within the academic year 2018/19 was conducted at the National Defence University of Kyiv. 600 participants from the Eastern Partnership countries, the EU Member States and the EU institutions attended either a two-day CSDP conference, a five-day CSDP orientation course or a half-day alumni event. The European week comprised three events within one week (3 in 1).

Main Image
Text

The Ministries of Defence of Austria and Lithuania together with the National Defence University of Ukraine, the latest associated network partner of the ESDC, cooperated with the European Commission during this ambitious week. The first two days gathered 550 participants to receive lectures on the strategic culture of the European Union, its structures and procedures and some insight into the Common Security and Defence Policy.

About 60 participants from this group continued for another three days with a regular CSDP orientation course, which raised issues of common concern, such as conflict analysis, cooperation in missions and operations, Brexit and how to fight hybrid threats. The latter is one of the biggest challenges for Ukraine, with day-to-day incidents in various forms (kinetic or cyber-attacks), intensities (local, regional, internal or external dimension) and targets (public and private sector).

In the middle of the week, alumni of previous editions of the European week were invited to attend an interactive seminar on 'strategic communication', which refers to policy-making and guidance to encourage consistent information activity within an organisation and between organisations. Strategic communication is one tool to mitigate the risks of hybrid attacks.

During the reception, the Head of the EU Delegation in Ukraine, Ambassador Hugues Mingarelli, addressed the experts, alumni and students. He underlined the support given to Ukraine in general and the importance of capacity-building in detail.

This training activity was provided by Austria, Lithuania and Ukraine in cooperation with the European Commission and under the auspices of the European Security and Defence College. It was supported by a number of ESDC network partners, such as the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES), the Finnish Defence Forces International Centre (FINCENT), the Royal Institute for International Relations (Egmont Institute), the Irish Edward Kennedy Institute, the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL), the Spanish Ministry of Defence and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Background: The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a joint policy initiative which aims to deepen and strengthen relations between the European Union (EU), its Member States and its six Eastern neighbours: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Post category
News stories
Topics
Common Foreign & Security Policy (CFSP)
Regional policies
Security, Defence & Crisis Response
Editorial sections
Security, Defence & Crisis Response