CEC President Rev. Christian Krieger with Dr Azza Karam in Brussels.
Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, on 6 September in Brussels, hosted a conference on religious engagement, social inclusion and foreign policy, where she announced a new EU-sponsored "Global Exchange on Religion in Society".
"CEC welcomes this new EEAS initiative and supports global exchange of faith based and civil society organisations all around the world," said CEC President Rev. Christian Krieger, who attended the conference.
CEC Executive Secretary for Human Rights Dr Elizabeta Kitanovic in her intervention spoke about CEC activities in the Western Balkan region in the past decades. She explained that different countries in the Western Balkans have different needs after the war, which took place during 90s and that the this region needs more exchange initiatives like the one EEAS has created.
The new initiative will be entrusted to an organisation through an open call for tenders. The Global Exchange on Religion in Society is expected to be operational in the first half of 2020 and will be funded by the Partnership Instrument. Interested organisations can participate in the open call by applying as indicated here.
The public conference brought together 150 representatives of civil society, governments and religious institutions. Participants discussed different experiences of religious engagement from across the world, to better understand how the new Global Exchange can complement and interact with existing initiatives.