SEnECA – Strengthening and Energizing EU Central Asia Relations – Final Conference, 14/15 November 2019 in Brussels
On 14-15 November 2019, CIFE together with TEPSA organised a conference of the Horizon 2020 project “SEnECA - Strengthening and Energizing EU-Central Asia relations” at the Square Brussels Convention Centre. The conference was the final event of the two-year project. Next to the researchers of the SEnECA consortium, the conference with the title “What Future for EU-Central Asia Relations?” involved academics, government officials, media representatives and other experts from Europe and Central Asia. The aim was to discuss the main output of the project with relevant stakeholders from both regions and to make concrete recommendations for the implementation of the new EU’s Central Asia Strategy and also for the future of SEnECA.
Andris Ameriks, Vice-Chair of DCAS at the European Parliament, and Peter Burian, the EU’s Special Representative for Central Asia, held introductory speeches and informed the audience that in the new financial framework of the EU (2021-2027), Central Asia is likely to continue to play a relevant role. An important goal will be to get all EU member states as well as the individual Central Asian states on board when designing specific projects and initiatives in the framework of the new EU’s Central Asia strategy. Several ambassadors and representatives of the Central Asian countries participated in the event and contributed to the debates on EU-Central Asian cooperation in education and research, on communication and knowledge transfer, on culture as a catalyst of social change in Central Asia, and on connectivity between the regions.
The SEnECA project has been funded by the Horizon 2020 programme and runs from January 2018 to December 2019. It supports cooperation between Central Asia and the European Union by intensifying academic regional networking. The project is led by the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) and the University of Duisburg-Essen and further includes 10 organisations from the EU and Central Asia as members of the project consortium. For more information, please visit the project website: www.seneca-eu.net
Programme
During the two-day event, SEnECA consortium members will present the outputs of the project, and will discuss the recommendations to implement the new EU’s Central Asia strategy. The event will also feature a panel on culture as a catalyst of social change in Central Asia, and on connectivity between Asia and Europe. Furthermore, the last panel of the conference will be an outlook on EU-Central Asia relations for 2030. The SEnECA Final Conference will also be a good opportunity to see some of the photos that were exhibited in the SEnECA Photo Exhibition on April 2019.
About SEnECA
The SEnECA project has been funded by the Horizon 2020 programme and runs from January 2018 to December 2019. It supports cooperation between Central Asia and the European Union by intensifying academic regional networking. The project is led by the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) and the University of Duisburg-Essen and further includes 10 organisations from the EU and Central Asia as members of the project consortium.
