CSDP Reflective Seminar

6-9 October, Skopje

The 2014 cycle of the CSDP Training Program for SAP countries has been finalized with the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) Reflection Seminar that was held on 6-9 October 2014 in Skopje. This year the training program was supported by the TAIEX instrument of the European Commission for the first time. The training was conducted by the European Security and Defence College (ESDC), while twinning partners and co-organizers of the Reflection Seminar in Skopje were the Ministry of Defence and Sports of the Republic of Austria, as one of the initiators of the training program, and the Directorate for Security of Classified Information, with support of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Macedonia.
The CSDP Reflection Seminar was attended by nearly thirty participants from Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. Course Director was Dr. Jochen Rehrl from EU (European External Action Service), while guest experts were Dr. Anja Opitz from Germany (Academy for Political Research and Education, Tutzing), Annemarie Peen Rodt from Danmark (Roskilde University), Herbert Roman Sailer from Austria (Austrian Joint Forces Command) and Thomas Renard from Belgium (Egmont Institute). The seminar participants discussed the topics related to the European security policy in smaller working groups by applying the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis method. For successful completion of the training cycle in 2014, the participants in the seminar were awarded certificates signed by the EU Foreign Policy and Security Commissioner.