Recommendations Workshop in Brussels
The Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) organised the SEnECA Recommendations Workshop in Brussels on 11 and 12 July 2019. The goal of the fifth SEnECA event was to bring SEnECA consortium members and Brussels stakeholders together in order to discuss the implementation of the new EU Strategy on Central Asia, which has been ratified by the European Council in June 2019. The main part of the workshop consisted of a views exchange with all attendees of the workshop on the presented recommendations. Different aspects of the new strategy and ideas on its implementation were discussed in three parallel working groups, focusing on 1) political and security relations, 2) economic relations and trade and 3) cultural and other relations respectively.The highlight of the workshop was an elaborate keynote speech of EU Special Representative towards Central Asia, Peter Burian, who has made a great effort visiting European and Central Asian cities during the past two years and consulting with a multitude of public officials, representatives of the private sector and civil society. The focus of the new strategy is on “partnership for resilience“ and “partnership for prosperity“ which shall be achieved via the first „EU-Central Asia Forum“. The SEnECA researchers pointed out that the EU should put more effort into improving its image in Central Asia through a thorough communication strategy, which shall make understandable to Central Asians what the EU stands for and what it actually does in the region.
