Serbia Palace hosted, on 7 and 8 November 2017, the Conference on establishing a system for participation of civilian experts in multinational operations led by the OSCE, EU and the UN, co-organized by the Ministry of Defence and the OSCE Mission to Serbia.
The Conference was opened by Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, while the speakers at the opening session also included Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Sem Fabrizi; Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Ambassador Andrea Orizio, and Assistant Minister of EU Integration Ksenija Milenkovic.
In addition to representatives from the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of European Integration, the first session, devoted to the development of a system for participation of civilian experts in multilateral missions led by the EU, OSCE and the UN, was addressed also by the Acting Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Security Policy, Ambassador Branimir Filipovic.
Ambassador Filipovic highlighted the activities carried out so far towards creating an institutional and legal framework that would enable deployment of civilian experts to multinational missions and operations, in the same way that the personnel of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Interior has been deployed for many years now. He underlined that Serbia’s participation in these missions and operations was a highly important element of the country’s foreign policy positioning and its fulfilment – as a Member State of the UN and the OSCE, and an EU candidate country – of international commitments, and its contribution to peace and stability. Ambassador Filipovic further underlined the Foreign Ministry’s involvement in this area as coordinator of activities in Serbia’s EU negotiating process within the framework of Chapter 31 – Common Foreign, Security and Defence Policy, and its high level of inter-departmental cooperation with the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of European Integration, and other ministries and institutions, as this was a joint undertaking of essential foreign policy importance.
Representatives of the Foreign Ministry’s Sector of Security Policy and Sector for the EU also participated in panel discussions related to reviewing the practices of other countries in dispatching civilian experts, and the issue of human resource and institutional capacity-building for civilian participation in multinational operations.