The Zagreb Modern Gallery 2 November hosted an international conference on “EU Experience: Share-Exchange-Communicate”, organized by the MFEA Centre of Excellence. The goal of the conference was to exchange know-how and experiences on the importance of sharing EU integration topics with the perspective future member states. It was also an opportunity to present the Centre of Excellence’s results and activities over the past three years, i.e. since the founding of the Transition Processes Council. Keynote addresses were delivered by Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Raimundas Karoblis and Assistant Minister for EU Affairs Maja Bakran Marcich, who underlined the importance of strengthening administrative capacities and competences in regard to EU policies decision-making. She said the Centre of Excellence represented the fundamental institutional model for promoting and preserving Croatia’s transitional know-how, which through its activities also contributed to the strengthening of national EU affairs capacities.
The conference is a central event of a twinning light project titled “Support to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in capacity building related to the Membership in the European Union”, which the Centre of Excellence is running from May to November this year, in cooperation with colleagues from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The participants included representatives from state and public administration, NGOs, embassies in Croatia, partner institutions from Southeast Europe and other international organizations the Centre of Excellence is cooperating with. The participants had an opportunity to establish new and deepen the existing cooperation on joint projects as well as discuss the ways the Centre of Excellence will operate in the coming period, notably in view of expanding its competence to include coordinating twinning-out EU assistance instruments.
The panellists outlined their views on how to improve the role of the Centre of Excellence through strengthening cooperation on national, regional and local level. They highlighted the need for a more active involvement of Croatian institutions in the twinning EU assistance instruments through the Centre’s coordination as well as better communication in general of EU policies to the public.