On 28 April 2020 the OSCE Academy in Bishkek held its first online public lecture titled “Towards the Implementation of the 2019 European Union's Strategy for Central Asia” delivered by Ana-Maria Anghelescu, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest, Romania and currently an Associate Research Fellow at the Academy and Erasmus+ exchange student at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. The online mode of the lecture allowed us to gather more than 60 interested participants from different countries.
At the beginning of the presentation, Ms. Anghelescu provided an overview of the EU external relations and development of the EU’s relations with Central Asia starting from 1991 till present. The second part of the presentation was devoted to the EU strategies; in particular, Ms. Anghelescu talked about 2007 EU – Central Asia Strategy (EUSCA) and offered an evaluation of its implementation. In addition, she compared 2007 and 2019 EUSCA, elaborating on each prospect of the strategies and highlighting the advantages of the latter. At the end of the lecture, Ms. Anghelescu conveyed her recommendations and answered the questions from the participants on the integration of CSO due to the diversity of political situations in the region; China's role in the region in the context of the new EU strategy; criticism toward the previous strategy and possible inclusion of Afghanistan in the 2019 EUSCA.
Video recording of the lecture is available on the Academy You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZb7QMokkpc&feature=youtu.be
The presentation was based on the policy brief written by Ana-Maria for the OSCE Academy’s Policy Brief series available at: http://www.osce-academy.net/upload/file/PB_58.pdf