The College of Europe, together with the British Council, is managing the EU funded project ‘Training and Information Course on Euro-Arab Diplomacy’. The project started in June 2013 for an initial duration of 2 years and has been initiated by the European Commission – League of Arab States Liaison Office. In May 2015, the project was extended until June 2017. It aims at improving the flow of information and promoting dialogue among officials working in European Union institutions and in the League of Arab States (LAS) Secretariat. For this reason, it has been named El Hiwar, the Arabic word for dialogue.
In the framework of the project, a training course on the functioning of the European Union and EU-Arab relations took place in Brussels from 7 to 10 April 2014 for 24 officials from the LAS. It included visits to EU institutions and meetings with its representatives.
More recently, two groups of officials from LAS member states attended an intensive English course specialized in EU terminology in order to improve their communication and EU terminology skills. In total 29 officials came to Canterbury, UK, from 10 to 21 November 2014 (group 1) and from 24 November to 5 December 2014 (group 2). As a part of the programme, the participants had the opportunity to visit London and the Canterbury Lodge where they met the Lord Major of Canterbury. Participants also attended training sessions on the following topics: Focus on the EU and the institutions; Critical thinking skills: Reading between the lines; Key facts and figures about Europe; Legal systems in the EU; presentation skills via practical exercises.
More activities will be organized in the context of the project in order to promote the development of the Euro-Arab partnership.
For additional information and opportunities of collaboration, please contact:
Typhaine RAMPILLON, Junior Project Manager at the Development Office of the College of Europe: typhaine.rampillon@coleurope.eu.
This project is funded by the European Union.