Blogs

The Joint History Project, CDRSEE’s flagship project, a real vector for change in the education of history in the area of Southeast Europe, 20 years after its embarkation, still continues to expand its reach. The second phase of the commendable project that started with the publication of two more workbooks, covering the Cold War, the wars of the 90s and the transitions up until 2008, in English, has advanced with the translation of the workbooks into Albanian and Serbian respectively.

Organised by the European Council on Foreign Relations, the Wilfried Martners Centre for European Studies and the European Movement International, the Conference ‘In Dialogue with the Western Balkans: Creating a Region of Growth, Security and Connectivity on the Path to Europe’ gathered more than 30 policymakers, opinion makers, media professionals and civil society representatives to an open discussion with and about the societies of the Western Balkans.

The CDRSEE is delighted to announce the beginning of a new collaboration with Germany’s renowned public international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW). Endorsing the proposal of Ms. Adelheid Feilcke, Head of the Europe Desk and the Western Balkans Department of DW, the two organisations laid the foundations for a constructive and fruitful collaboration.

In light of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 and on the occasion of its 24th General Assembly, COPEAM invited its members to attend its 25th Annual Conference ‘Heritage and Media. Preserving the Future through our Past: An Opportunity for Growth and Democracy?’.

Fear can often cloud our mind or lead us to extremes, but it can also serve a purpose: to alert us to the fact that something is wrong and in doing so, sharpen our senses.  Having lived through the turbulence of the 1990s in the Western Balkans, I am not certain which of these two reactions to fear gained the upper hand in my emotions this week…:  when in addition to a dread of the 1990s rearing its ugly head again in this region, I also recognised the real threat of a new world war knocking on the door. I am talking about Syria, of course.

The Albanian and Serbian Language Editions of the Joint History Project II Workbooks will be launched on 24 May in Pristina, in an event at which both high ranking officials will participate and a short training session will be carried out for History Educators. This launch marks the publication of the first Local Language Editions of the JHPII with many more to follow.

Confucius said “You cannot open a book without learning something”.  For Confucius, the primary function of education was to provide the proper way of training exemplary persons, a process that involved constant self-improvement and continuous  social interaction. Following the principles of their most influential philosopher, Chinese teachers identified the significance of educational books in equipping educators with the proper skills to facilitate the learning process and, thus, to meet the increasing learning expectations of our times.

On 18 April 2018, the 29th Meeting of the Board of Directors and the first one for 2018 took place at the offices of the CDRSEE in Thessaloniki. Comprising a multicultural team of distinguished individuals from diverse disciplines, the CDRSEE Board of Directors convened to discuss lessons learned from last year’s work, review the financial results of the first quarter of 2018 and plan ahead for the activities of the next months.

Belgrade, 16-17 April 2018: The European Fund for the Balkans’ celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a two-day event that brought together an international audience from politics, the media, civil society, academia, arts and culture, business and philanthropy to discuss the future of Europe and the European future of the Balkans.

The series of interactive, pedagogical workshops for educators ‘Teaching for Learning’, organised in the context of ePACT, continued with significant success in Albania. The first workshop took place from 10-11 April and the second one from 12-13 April.