From 10 November until 5 December 2014, two groups of officials from the League of Arab States (LAS) member states attended an intensive English course specialized in EU terminology. The training took place in Canterbury, UK, in the framework of an EU-funded project called El Hiwar, the Arabic word for dialogue, managed by the College of Europe and the British Council.
The project has been initiated by the European Commission - League of Arab States Liaison Office. 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 Secretariat.
A first group of 14 officials from LAS member states such as Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Sudan and Algeria attended the first course from 10 to 21 November 2014. A second group of 15 participants attended the second course with the same programme from 24 November to 5 December 2014. As a part of the programme, the participants had the opportunity to visit the Canterbury Lodge on Friday 21 November, where they met the Lord Major of Canterbury. With practical sessions, exercises, peer reviews on presentations and video projections, the programme was very well evaluated by the participants who considered this kind of training key to further develop their duties as officials.
This project is funded by the European Union.