The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jan Lipavsky, opened the European Diplomatic Programme and, in his speech, he stressed the Czech experience with authoritarian regimes. With relation to the current war in Ukraine, he stated ‘Let's never and nowhere oversee, forget or relativise mass murders, destruction, rape or forced migration. When and where committed, there must be accountability, regardless of the position or power of the perpetrator.’

The event in Prague was the 23^rd edition of the European Diplomatic Programme (EDP) for junior diplomats and training directors. After the first module, the junior diplomats will participate in individual exchange visits to other EU member states and a joint trip to the EU headquarters in Brussels. The whole edition will be concluded by a module organised under the Swedish presidency in Stockholm. The goal of the programme is to discuss current topics in European diplomacy, educate as well as create a network of young European diplomats.

In the first module, there is traditionally participation from directors of European diplomatic academies as well as representatives of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council. In total, over one hundred delegates from the whole of the EU arrived in Prague.

The event was organised by the Diplomatic Academy of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and took place in the Prague Congress Centre, under the director, Vera Jerabkova, together with the Head of Division Learning and Career and Development, from the EEAS, Ulrike Hauer. Many prominent Czech personalities participated in the programme, such as Michael Zantovsky, Dana Drabova, Daniel Kostoval and Simon Panek. They delivered speeches on topics related to the Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union, the legacy of Vaclav Havel, and the Energy, Security and Humanitarian dimensions of the war in Ukraine.