RAN Plenary - RAN Practitioners Plenary 2023 Practitioners’ voices and perspectives: achievements and challenges, Brussels 13 October 2023

Annually, the RAN Practitioners Plenary convenes practitioners actively engaged in the network to discuss upcoming topics and challenges relevant to the RAN Working Groups and across the field of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) more broadly. This provides an opportunity to weigh in on the agenda for the year ahead.

This year marks a special occasion, as the RAN will transition into the new EU Knowledge Hub on the Prevention of Radicalisation in the second half of 2024, heralding a new phase of P/CVE in the EU and making the 2023 RAN Practitioners Plenary the last of its kind. The achievements made and the continued need to centre practitioners in P/CVE were therefore emphasised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) during the meeting.

Topics and priorities for the first half of 2024 were discussed and substantiated in small groups, including in an online group that was part of this year’s Plenary’s hybrid set-up, which allowed for streaming of most of the event.

Highlighting practitioners’ voices, perspectives and, crucially, their well-being was central to the 2023 Plenary. The continued importance of mental health as a topic in P/CVE was underlined at various moments throughout the meeting.