Berlin Policy Hub – Stocktaking after two and a half years of intense cooperation
From 21 to 23 July 2020, the Berlin Policy Hub project wrapped up with a virtual closing week, with its seven partner organisations from Georgia (3), Moldova (2) and Ukraine (2). In addition to training sessions, the three days provided the opportunity for exchange, networking, and a reflective evaluation.
On the first day, two virtual training sessions with Marius Moehler from the Berlin based Leadership Academy LEAD took place, in which he presented strategies how to overcome COVID-19 related challenges for the leadership of organizations. The directors of the think tanks were coached on the topic of managing decentralized teams and learned about new methods to make virtual meetings interactive and effective.
On the second day, a virtual exchange took place with the Special Representative for the Eastern Partnership of the Federal Foreign Office, Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth, during which the priorities for the Eastern Partnership under the German EU Council Presidency were discussed. This led to an intensive exchange of views, also with regard to the question of how the partner organizations can contribute to the upcoming events. The exchange was as a continuation of the dialogue started at the Regional Synergy Meeting in October 2019.
The third and final day was used for an internal feedback and evaluation session. The participants looked back on the past two and a half years of cooperation, during which numerous stays, meetings, research partnerships, publications, and events were realised. In addition to a review of the joint work, future collaborations among the Eastern Partnership countries were also discussed.
The Berlin Policy Hub is part of the “Europeanization beyond process” initiative supported by the Open Society Foundation and aims to intensify exchanges between Eastern European think tanks and their German counterparts and to facilitate new forms of cooperation. The project gives researchers from Georgia, Moldova and the Ukraine the opportunity to present their expertise and research results to a German audience, while at the same time gaining a better understanding of the discourse within Germany on these topics.