ELIAMEP

Professor Loukas Tsoukalis, President of ELIAMEP spoke on Proto Thema newspaper on role of think tanks. You can access the interview here (in Greek).

On Monday 28 November, at 20:00 Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos will give a talk at the ‘House of Cyprus’ on the occasion of a book launch event on Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean. The book is authored by Zenon Tsiarras and Nikos Moudouros. You can find here the invitation (in Greek).

In this book chapter, included in a offical publication of the Greek Parliament which has just been out, Giorgos Tsiridis and Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos map the different, formal and informal, more institutionalized and less institutionalized, segments of civil society in 1967-1974, under the Colonels’ Regime. Using material from interviews with 30 members of the Greek resistance, they show how civil society developed under an authoritarian political regime, exploiting all opportunities to mobilize and adapting to changing circumstances of political oppression.

Τhe publication is available here (in Greek).

You can read here the article on new developments in the Eastern Mediterranean after Trump’s victory, which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in Kathimerini on 16 November 2016 [in Greek].

MEDMIG Research Brief: ‘Understanding the dynamics of migration to Greece and the EU’ is included in Think Tank Review of the Council of the EU (p. 37).

This Research Brief presents findings in relation to refugees and migrants who traveled via the Eastern Mediterranean Route from Turkey to Greece during 2015. The research took place in collaboration with ELIAMEP between September 2015 and January 2016

The Brief focuses on four main themes: a) The factors affecting the decision to leave, b) Journeys and routes taken to reach Greece, c) Intended destinations of those migrating, and d) the use of smugglers to facilitate the journey. Υοu can find here more information.

You can read here the article on the vistory of Donald Trump, which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in Kathimerini on 11 November 2016 [in Greek].

Research Fellow of ELIAMEP, Dr Panagiota Manoli, contributes with a chapter titled: ’A Structural Foreign Policy Perspective on the European Neighbourhood Policy’ in the volume Theorizing the European Neighbourhood Policy. The new book is edited by Sieglinde Gstöhl and Simon Schunz and published by Routledge. You can find here more information.

ELIAMEP provides the channel for recruiting Greek students for the Master’s Programme at the College of Europe through the Greek Selection Committee for the College of Europe, which operates on the ELIAMEP premises. The College of Europe is a centre of academic excellence, with five programmes, leading to a Master’s degree. It operates in two campuses, in Bruges (Belgium) and Natolin (Poland). The five one-year programmes are: Politics and Administration, Law, Economics as well as EU International Relations and Diplomacy in Bruges, and the “European Interdisciplinary Studies: The Internal and External Dimensions of the EU” programme in Natolin.

Applying: The requirements for admission are a relevant University degree of good standard and working knowledge (writing and speaking) of English and French.

Closing date for applications is January 18th, 2017. Interviews for short-listed candidates take place in April / May in Athens by the Greek Selection Committee. Application files should include the documents (in English or in French) listed below:

1. The Application Form of the College of Europe, to be submitted online.

2. a CV indicating the totality of your studies as well as the grades obtained.

3. a certified copy of your degree(s) (if you are not yet in possession of your final degree, please send it as soon as it is available).

4. a transcript from your University, Faculty, School, detailing results for every year of your studies and grades obtained.

5. 2 letters of recommendation from two of your university professors.

No other documents are required. Please note that applications which are not complete, especially with respect to the certificates detailing the results of your studies and the marks obtained cannot be taken into consideration. Please also note that the Master’s Degrees awarded from the College of Europe are recognized from the National Academic Recognition Information Center (NARIC).

Applications should be sent electronically to the College of Europe

For further information and a brochure, do not hesitate to contact Ms. Matina Meintani, tel: +30 210 360 7611, email: ltsoukalis_assistant@eliamep.gr.

ELIAMEP researchers Evangelia Psychogiopoulou and Anna Kandyla participated in the “Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 (MPM2016) Final Workshop & Final Conference”, which took place on November 3 and 4, 2016 respectively in Florence. Both events were hosted by the coordinator of the MPM2016, the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European University Institute. The final workshop was confined to the participation of project partners and aimed at discussing implementation issues. The open conference on the next day focused on presenting the findings from the first pan-European implementation of the MPM2016 carried out in 2016 in the EU Member-States, Turkey and Montenegro. ELIAMEP researchers presented key findings from the application of the MPM2016 in Greece and contributed actively to the discussions about fine-tuning the tool for the future. The agenda of the conference is available here. You may watch the conference here.

You can read here the article on the vistory of Donald Trump, which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published on in.gr on 9 November 2016 [in Greek].

Τhe Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) organized οn 3-4 November 2016 a Workshop of the Mercator European Dialogue in cooperation with The Global Turkey in Europe programme: “EU-Turkey Relations Between the Refugee Crisis and the Failed Coup”.

The event focused on the current state of relations between Turkey and the EU, including the agreement for the management of the refugee and migration crises. The participants had the chance to discuss relations between Turkey and the EU and share their perspectives with colleagues from other European Parliaments and experts.

The Mercator European Dialogue is run by Stiftung Mercator and The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) in Germany, in collaboration with the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Italy, the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) in Spain and the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) in Greece.

You can read here the article on the recent decision by the Council of State concerning media landscape in Greece, which was written by Professor George Pagoulatos. The commentary was published on 29 October 2016  in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini and is available in Greek.

You can read here the article on the US presidential election, which was written by Professor Emeritus and Member of the Board of Trustees of ELIAMEP Theodore Couloumbis. This commentary was published on 29 October 2016 in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini. It is available in Greek.

On the occasion of a publication of a relevant research report by ELIAMEP, Dr Ioannis Armakolas, Head of South-East Europe Programme, spoke on Athina 9.84 radio station on relations between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The interview is available here (in Greek).

Greece’s non-performing exposure ratio is the second highest in Europe, largely linked to the unprecedented contraction of domestic economic activity in recent years. Causality is known to go both ways, with persistently high non-performing loans (NPLs) constituting a drag on credit and GDP growth. Theoretically, Greek governments keen to reduce the debt overhang and restore the productive pillars of the economy should have created the conditions for a rapid and effective workout of NPLs. The country’s third bailout programme has provided a road map for reform, with the Institutions bent on facilitating or enforcing ownership. Conditionality, anchored on a ‘reforms for cash’ logic, has reduced perceived or real margins for noncompliance.

In fact, NPLs resolution has remained a work in progress. Weak cyclical conditions tell part of the story. Democratic politics have collided with reform ownership. Electoral and non-electoral pressures, multiple veto points, and private sector resistance have undermined majority-backed rules and regulations. The current fully-liberalised framework has come about under conditions of severe stress – a heavy debt repayment schedule and the country’s dependence on bailout programme funds.

The Institutions have upped their game: outcomes-based conditionality has been central to boost and reinforce political ‘will’. In some cases, ownership has altogether been removed from government hands. Greek recalcitrance and the paradoxes of inaction, procrastination or limited response in the face of a glaringly unsustainable equilibrium cannot be discounted. The strongly directive elements of an externally-dictated process, however, raise questions about the political tradeoffs between prompt implementation, accountability, and the legitimacy of the Institutions’ design.

To enhance the framework’s credibility, scope, and effectiveness, the main stakeholders, regulators, elected politicians, bankers, and investors, will have to flesh it out and create the right incentives for engagement. After six years of seeking to build ‘ownership’, the Institutions have yet to link capacity with the broader institutional context, including the integrity of the legal and judicial process, the independence of regulatory agencies, and the transparency of business-government relations. They have also yet to own up to their role in the self-reinforcing negative loop of recession, deterioration of credit quality, NPLs creation.

Author: Dr Eleni Panagiotarea

Source: Hellenic Observatory blog, LSE

From national coordination to supranational supervision: Greece towards the EU programs of economic adjustment – This article assesses the impact of European economic governance on the political and administrative system of Greece in the context of the sovereign debt crisis. It describes the changes in the coordination and administrative system that Greece has put in place according to the requirements of the economic adjustment programmes in order to adapt to the new environment at national and European level. The article assesses how the strict conditions of the Greek membership in the Eurozone have weakened the centrality of the State, the administrative and political sovereignty of Greek governments and their bargaining power in the intergovernmental decision-making bodies governing the Eurozone.

Author: Dr Filippa Chatzistavrou

You can find here more information.

 

On 21 October 2016, ELIAMEP organised in cooperation with Hertie School of Governance a focus group on the topic of corruption and good governance in Greece. The focus group took place in the framework of the Anticorrp project (www.anticorrp.eu) and it was led by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, professor of policy analysis and democracy at Hertie. The aim of the focus group was to discuss key issues concerning corruption and anti-corruption efforts in Greece in order to generate specialised knowledge in the field. The focus group brought together participants from the academia, the public sector, anti-corruption bodies, staff from the European institutions, legal practitioners and representatives from civil society.

The focus group started with a presentation of the Anticorrp project and the concept of corruption that is used in its framework. Alina Mungiu-Pippidi explained that corruption should be understood as a ‘governance regime’, encompassing any form of favouritism, legal or illegal, which results in the privilege or discrimination of citizens and companies by public authorities. Participants were subsequently invited to react to various questions. The discussion focused in particular on the following issues:

• Why is Greece below the EU average on corruption? Is the country as corrupt as it was? Has there been any real redress?
• Is there a domestic demand for less corruption? If yes, what forms does it take?
• Has the Greek deficit been caused by corruption? If there are any causal links, have they been removed?
• Has Greece become a merit-based society? Does corruption lead to brain drain? What should be done in order to promote meritocracy?
• Corrupt societies discourage innovation. Is this true in the case of Greece? If yes, is any action taken to prevent this?
• Are EU funds a resource for corruption or one for redress?

Participants exchanged views and opinions on the above mentioned themes and more broadly, they had a fruitful discussion on the pros and cons of anti-corruption strategies in Greece. One of the points they tended to agree upon was the significant improvements brought to the legal framework during the past few years in the context of the crisis, and largely in response to the reforms that the Greek government agreed with its lenders to undertake. The institutional anti-corruption arsenal has been substantially strengthened. However, implementation problems were said to persist mainly due to limited resources, the lack of personnel and expertise, and the absence of coordination and interconnected procedures. Participants also agreed on the lack of objective surveys and statistics on corruption in Greece. This allowed Prof. Mungiu-Pippidi to suggest research avenues for the future. For more information on the focus group, you can contact Dia Anagnostou (danagnos@eliamep.gr), Evangelia Psychogiopoulou (epsychogiopoulou@eliamep.gr) and Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos (dsotirop@pspa.uoa.gr).

The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) in collaboration with the University of Warwick and the University of Malta have the pleasure to invite you in the closed workshop on

“Crossing the Mediterranean by Boat: Mapping and Documenting Migratory Journeys and Experiences”*

The workshop will be held in English on November 11th 2016, from 9.30 am to 12.30pm, at the Electra Palace Hotel (18 Nikodimou Street, Athens)

 

You are kindly requested to confirm your participation to Ms Nina Papaioannou (Tel. 2107257111, e-mail: nina@eliamep.gr ) by November 7th 2016.

 * The project is funded through the Economic and Social Research Council under Grant ES/N013646/1

  

“Crossing the Mediterranean by Boat: Mapping and Documenting Migratory Journeys and Experiences” Workshop

“Crossing the Mediterranean by Boat: Mapping and Documenting Migratory Journeys and Experiences” is a research project that assesses the impact of policy on those that it affects most directly: refugees and migrants themselves. This event will present initial findings from the second phase of the project, which is based on 120 in-depth qualitative interviews carried out during May-June 2016 in Athens, Berlin, Istanbul and Rome. Critical insights will be provided by project researchers on the journeys and experiences of people moving via the Central and Eastern routes, including those affected by the EU-Turkey Deal and by border security operations off the Libyan coast.

 

Session I: “Retracing the migrant journey”

 9.30-9.45Welcome and project presentation

Dr.Vicki Squire, Reader in International Security, University of Warwick &

Nina Perkowski, Researcher University of Warwick

 9.45-10.00Asylum seekers and migrants in Turkey

Dr. Maria Pisani, Lecturer, University of Malta

 10.00-10.15Stranded in Greece

Dr. Angeliki Dimitriadi, Research Fellow, ELIAMEP

 10.15-10.30Destination Germany

Assoc. Prof. Dallal Stevens, Associate Professor of Law, University of Warwick

 10.30-10.45The other Mediterranean crisis: Italy

Prof. Nick Vaughan-Williams, Professor of International Security, University of Warwick

 10.45-11.00Commentary on presentations

Angelos Athanasopoulos, Journalist TOVIMAgr

 11.00-11.20Coffee break 

Session II

 11.20-12.30Q&A and Roundtable discussion

Moderated by Angelos Athanasopoulos, Journalist TOVIMAgr

 

ELIAMEP’s South-East Europe Programme has published its newest report focused on Greek Public Opinion of the ‘Name Dispute’ and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The report was authored by Dr Ioannis Armakolas and George Siakas of the University of Macedonia, and was generously funded by the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University.

The study focused around a survey which aimed to measure Greek public attitudes about international life in general and about the “Macedonia” dispute, its parameters and potential solutions, and is the first survey of its kind. The results indicate highly pessimistic, introverted and distrustful attitudes toward international affairs, and public opinion emotional in its attitudes towards the name dispute and FYROM, resulting in a highly rejectionist outlook. The survey shows that, twenty-five years after the emergence of the new “Macedonian question”, the issue has not been forgotten by Greek public opinion and still remains very relevant.

You can access the study here.

Associate Professor  at the University of Athens and  Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos, gave an interview on the website of SciencesPo discussing the Greek crisis. He, inter alia, analyses issues such as populism and corruption. The interview is available here.