The European Diplomatic Programme (EDP) is the EU’s training programme for young diplomats from member states, the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Commission and the European Council.
The 22nd edition of the programme is taking place between November 2021 and June 2022 during the Presidencies of Slovenia and France and is dedicated to the theme “The EU as a global actor – strategic autonomy, resilience and multilateralism”.
68 young diplomats from the EDP took part in a two-day module in Brussels organised by the European External Action Service at the end of March. DLR-PT in partnership with the EU Science Diplomacy Alliance were invited for the first time as external experts to train the participants in Science Diplomacy. Jan Marco Müller, Science and Technology Advisor at the EEAS and Advisory Partner of the Alliance joined for the introductory remarks and linked the session to the overall EU policy context.
Under the theme “Science Diplomacy- Why does it matter to European Diplomats?”, Stella Reschke and Angela Schindler-Daniels from the Brussels DLR-PT office conducted an interactive training session including presentations and videos, surveys and discussion. By looking at practical examples, the young diplomats gained a better understanding of the term and how they could integrate Science Diplomacy tools into their work.
We hope that this training session is paving the way for anchoring SD in the training curricula for European diplomats, and we are looking forward to jointly exploring the potential of SD further.
Image: Jan-Marco Müller (EEAS), Angela Schindler-Daniels (DLR), Stella Reschke (DLR), Luk Van Langenhove (VUB)
