CORE Conducts Training for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Bern, July 2013
CORE has conducted its sixth OSCE-related training course in Bern, 8 – 11 July 2013. The course was a contribution to the preparations of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) for its forthcoming OSCE Chairmanship. It addressed a group of about three dozens Swiss diplomats who where also joined by diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia. The training course was one of Switzerland’s and Serbia’s first joint preparatory steps on the way to their consecutive chairmanships in 2014 and 2015.
The course departed from in-depth knowledge of OSCE affairs and practical teaching experiences CORE had already shared in previous years in similar training formats with diplomats from Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Ireland and Ukraine – the OSCE Chairmanships-in-Office between 2010 and 2013. The overall intention of these training courses is to broaden the respective MFA’s personnel pool and give advice for the qualified conduct of political and managerial issues of the OSCE. Therefore, they aim at communicating specific know-how on formal and informal OSCE decision-making and procedures of decision-implementation. They explain the Organization’s structure and matters of the OSCE’s strategic and daily management.
The courses summarize experiences in how to deal with the Chairmanship’s limited mandate, the expectations of other participating States and the OSCE apparatus with regard to organizing a successful year in office. They introduce into OSCE activities in specific sub-regions.
The 2013 training course in Bern addressed the team members of the OSCE Taskforce at the FDFA in Bern and the Swiss Delegation to the OSCE in Vienna, both headed by Ambassador Heidi Grau and Ambassador Thomas Greminger respectively.As mentioned, it provided an introduction for early Chairmanship preparations at the Serbian MFA. The course was conducted by CORE staff along with senior representatives of the OSCE Secretariat, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Irish OSCE Chairmanship 2012. CORE is grateful for this active personnel support for the course’s successful conduct.
Contact:
Dr. Frank Evers