ELIAMEP

You can read here the article on the course of Greek-Turkish relations, which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 27 July 2016 [in Greek].

The new issue of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies is now available online. This issue includes a diverse selection of articles addressing the full region of Southeast Europe and the Black Sea. Bilge Yabanci contributed a piece on the (Il)legitimacy of EU state building: local support and contention in Kosovo, even more relevant given Britain’s EU Referendum and ongoing uncertainty about the future of the EU in supporting state building efforts. In a similar vein, Agnieszka K. Cianciara examined ‘Europeanization’ as a legitimation strategy of political parties: the cases of Ukraine and Georgia. Also EU- related, Cristian Nitoiu analysed EU-Russia Relations in light of the Ukraine crisis. The issue also includes Marija Milenkovska & Frosina Taševska Remenski discussing FYROM after the 2001 conflict, especially relevant due to ongoing political unrest and uncertainty. Angeliki Andrea Kanavou addresses another ongoing conflict by examining Cyprus through the lens of ambiguity theory. Finally, James Meernik, Nenad Golcevski, Melissa McKay, Ayal Feinberg, Kimi King & Roman Krastev write on truth, justice, and education, and reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia. The issue also includes two book reviews, the first by Dimitris Sotiropoulos on Children of the dictatorship: student resistance, cultural politics, and the ‘long 1960s’ in Greece and the second by Evanthis Hatzivassiliou on Periphery of contact zone? The NATO flanks 1961 to 2013.

The present report explores the topic of migrant integration through the lens of local government, and it was prepared in the frame of the research project LOMIGRAS. It reviews the relevant literature on the role of local government in migrant integration in Europe, and it examines the case of Greece. On the basis of this review, the report develops an analytical frame for the study of migration policies in local government, and a frame for the assessment of the relevant measures and policies that municipalities adopt with the goal of promoting the integration of migrants.

Author: Dr Dia Anagnostou

LOMIGRAS Report: ‘Local Government and Migrant Integration in Europe and in Greece’

Υou can find here more information about LOMIGRAS.

Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos wrote an article in the Sunday edition of Eleftheros Typos newspaper, analysing Greek-Turkish relations after the coup. The article is available here (in Greek). It was published on 24 July 2016.

Research Fellow of ELIAMEP and Head of the Middle East Research Project Dr Evangelos Venetis wrote an article in the Sunday edition of Eleftheros Typos examining whether Turkey will be re-islamised after the failed coup. The article was published on 24 June and is available here (in Greek).

You can read here the article on citizens’ political choices in democratic societies , which was written by Professor George Pagoulatos. The commentary was published on 24 July 2016  in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini and is available in Greek.

Following the failed coup in Turkey, Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos discussed in Le Monde perspectives for Greek-Turkish relations. The article is available here (in Greek).

Following the failed coup in Turkey, Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos wrote an article on Huffington Post attempting to assess future perspectives for the country. The article is available here (in Greek).

The new book authored by President of ELIAMEP Professor Loukas Tsoukalis: In Defense of Europe. Can the European project be saved? was published by Oxford University Press. Professor Tsoukalis has already presented his book in sevaral European cities, among others in Madrid. His lecture in Rafael del Pino Foundation was recorded and the video is available here. Professor Tsoukalis analyses why Europe entered the crisis and outlines ways which can steer it out of it.

Carnegie Europe launched a debate in the aftermath of the failed coup in Turkey. Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos was among the interviewees by Judy Dempsey. His comment was the following:

‘Turkish democracy during the rule of the Kemalist establishment has been imperfect at best. The early years of rule by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) raised hopes for substantial and irreversible progress in the fields of liberal democracy, the rule of law, and protection of human rights. Unfortunately, all such hopes have been erased by the last few years of increasingly autocratic governance by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Economic development, the skillful exploitation of religious fervor among the less privileged groups in Turkish society, and a weak, rather discredited opposition have allowed Erdoğan to comfortably win successive elections and remain the master of the political game in Turkey for the past fifteen years.

The cost, however, has been a deep polarization and division of Turkish society along pro-Islamic vs. secular fault lines. If Erdoğan’s first post-coup actions are any guide to the future, that division will deepen even further as he will try to cleanse the state mechanism of real and imaginary enemies and consolidate power by transforming Turkey into a presidential republic. Unless moderate forces in the AKP can prevent this, the cost may be extremely high for Turkish democracy and society (Turks and Kurds alike), as well as for Turkey’s relations with its traditional Western allies.’

Source: Carnegie Europe

Associate Professor  at the University of Athens and  Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos, contributed with a paper on corruption in  Greece in an edited volume published by the the Parliamentary Budget Office.

The analysis of Dr Sotiropoulos is available here (in Greek).

Following the failed coup in Turkey, Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos commented in Greek media on the reasons for the failure and perspectives for the future. You can find more information here (in Greek).

You can read here the article on the future of Europe, which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 13 July 2016 [in Greek].

This is the work of Jean Plantureux (Plantu) following the attack in Nice

Following the terrorist attack in Nice Director General of ELIAMEP, Dr Thanos Dokos, wrote an article explaining the rise of terrorism and elaborating on potential measures to eradicate the problem. He also paid particular attention to the case of Greece. The article is available in Greek and can be accessed here.

You can read here the article on the Cyprus Question written by Research Fellow of ELIAMEP and Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Bilkent University, Dr. Ioannis N. Grigoriadis. This commentary was published in Kathimerini on 12 July 2016.

You can read here the article on the attempt to change the Greek electoral law, which was written by Professor George Pagoulatos. The commentary was published on 10 July 2016  in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini and is available in Greek.

Associate Professor  at the University of Athens and  Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos explained on EU Observer how the third bailout is implemented by the Greek government. The article was published on 5 July 2016 and is available here.

The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the European Policy Centre (EPC)  organised as Policy Dialogue on ‘Union, disunion or time for a paradigm shift?, on Wednesday 13 July 2016 in Brussels. The event was inspired by discussions held during the 13th European Seminar involving participants from all over Europe, organised by ELIAMEP, in cooperation with the EPC on 30 June-3 July 2016.

Speakers were: Ms Elizabeth Collett (Founding Director, Migration Policy Institute Europe; Senior Advisor to MPI’s Transatlantic Council on Migration, Brussels), Dr Ruby Gropas (Team Leader, Social Affairs, European Political Strategy Centre, European Commission), Professor George Pagoulatos (Athens University of Economics and Business; Member of the Board of Directors, ELIAMEP) and Mr Janis A. Emmanouilidis (Director of Studies, European Policy Centre). Dr Giovanni Grevi (Senior Fellow, European Policy Centre) will moderate the discussion.

You can find here more information.

Sino-Greek relations have been growing rapidly over the last decade. In the wake of the Olympic Games hosted by Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, but above all since the COSCO investment in the Piraeus sea port the two countries have come a long way from initial contacts to developing a close economic and political relationship. This is the view of the Greek Consortium for Chinese Studies, which brings together the Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER),  the Institute of International Relations (IIR) of the Panteion University, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), the Political Science and International Relations Department of the University of the Peloponnese, and the Department of Mediterranean Studies of the University of the Aegean.

The two countries have been coming closer together despite the economic slump in Greece and notwithstanding some challenges in relation to the COSCO investment in Piraeus. These difficulties have not discouraged China which remains fully committed to developinig its relationship with Greece. Beijing’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) vision is also a major factor to be reckoned with, as Piraeus is one of the key hubs on trade routes between China and Europe.

How is Athens contributing to making the best of the vast potential of Sino-Greek relations? Despite some persistent issues with regard to the Piraeus project, particular attention has been paid to co-operation between Greek shipping businesses and Chinese shipyards, even if Greece as a whole could have benefited to a larger extent from this significant sector of the economy. Growing numbers of Chinese visitors to Greece are yet another encouraging sign of an ever-closer partnership. On the flip side, prospects of boosting Greek exports to China remain limited, despite the fact that the latter has the second largest economy worldwide with a gigantic $6 trillion GDP.

The upcoming visit of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras coincides with the tenth anniversary of the 2006 Joint Communiqué between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Greece on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This could well herald the start of a new phase in Sino-Greek relations, one that would help maximise mutual benefits. The  Consortium for Chinese Studies highlights the following steps worth considering:

1. Confirming the role of Greece as a strategically important hub on the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) between East Asia and Europe, through the promotion of high-quality logistics services and intermodal transport, upon the speedy completion of the Piraeus port authority privatisation deal.
2. Re-confirming the potential of Greece with a view to foreign investment, with the development of strong links between Chinese and Greek enterprises. It is noted that at present a number of competitive local businesses in Greece lack the size to link up to Chinese partners.
3. Systematic support to be provided to Greek businesses interested in entering the Chinese market. However, this should be pursued on the basis of a comprehensive long-term strategy and not as one-off attempts, which has largely been the case so far. Growing domestic demand, in conjunction with Greece’s positive image in China, could play a significant part in the promotion of Greek exports. Notably, at present China is the destination of a meagre 2 percent of Greek exports.
4. Further facilitating the flow of Chinese tourists to Greece through easier access, as China’s outward tourism has been rapidly growing.
5. Devising a full-fledged strategy for co-operation between Greek and Chinese cultural and research/academic institutions.

Greece has been treading a difficult path. Historically, support for the EU has come with tangible and intangible benefits: stability, prosperity, a protecting framework, a seat at the big table. However, membership of the inner sanctum, the single currency, has triggered following the ‘good years’ of consumption-ridden profligacy significant costs: an economy in disarray, excessively high unemployment and rising inequality.

Greece’s painful predicament, as it is called upon to implement its third and harshest yet adjustment programme, inadvertently conflates the ‘euro’ with ‘Europe.’ It thus turns a previously overwhelming record of support into growing disquiet and discontent regarding Europe’s ability to achieve its core objectives, including balanced economic growth, broadly based prosperity, and the well-being of its peoples. European crisis management over the refugee crisis is also taking its toll.  The country did make its own set of mistakes, yet burden sharing  -in relation to a problem that far exceeds Greece’s economic, institutional and absorption capacity-  has been amiss.

The decline in Greece’s EU support is symptomatic of a wider malaise. The EU has long lost its capacity to unite and to deliver: the absence of a finalité, a common destination goal, is fast becoming a liability, worsened by the lack of a shared narrative. For Greece, which has also seen trust in the EU decline to the low levels usually afforded to national institutions, the EU is transitioning from an anchor of economic and social progress into a stifling and debilitating constraint.

The EU is still a roadmap for Greece yet it needs to provide real convergence

Greece has, of course, been far from a model student. Throughout its membership and in spite of substantial fiscal transfers, it has failed to catch up with the EU. It has been invariably blamed, particularly during the height of the sovereign debt crisis, for threatening the integrity of the euro and, by default, the EU. Today Greeks are caught between the costs associated with half-baked, austerity-filled bailout packages and the country’s inability to move beyond its weak structural and institutional set-up. For them, the EU should provide a roadmap for real convergence.

Critical in this respect is support for a significantly larger EU budget, extending its remit beyond investment spending. Greece has been left with zero fiscal space, a corollary of its tough fiscal commitments; it has also been left to fend for the prospect of future large shocks. Building up the budget constitutes a useful political half-way, it shields against the voices in the EU that would cry moral hazard and sets the scene for a future fiscal capacity. Greece’s endgame would, of course, be some form of fiscal union- assuming that it could withstand politically the requisite transfer of sovereignty.

A pro-integration country with limitations

The appetite for political centralisation, in the form of a European government, is limited however. Greeks also remain wary of the ascendancy of the intergovernmental method; it might have engineered the stability mechanisms that kept Greece afloat, yet it imposed an asymmetric adjustment agenda. Even a reformed Commission, broadly consideredan ally in Greece’s seven-year crisis would not do. The loss of democratic oversight over vital choices that affect people’s livelihoods translates into deep and diffuse distrust of the European project.

If the EU is to offer a credible exit from Greece’s adjustment conundrum, and a security framework to mend its fractured society, then it must re-think the way that it distributes costs and benefits. Post-crisis governance should do some fine-tuning of its own. This should involve a re-balancing of the current policy mix, the current ‘coordination’ of fiscal policies creates negative externalities that hinder growth; a repackaging of the Stability and Growth Pact in a fiscal sustainability frame, to ensure the long-term sustainability of public debt; an inclusion of social and employment indicators alongside macroeconomic ones in the European Semester, and a re-working of the application of rules to create the conditions for equal treatment- the economic imbalances of the big countries are left unpunished and/or they are allowed budget flexibility in line with their electoral cycles and other domestic concerns.

Greece, economically and financially beaten, has been banished to the periphery of decision-making. It still has the incentive to be an integration player however, not least because the EU has historically constituted its stabilisation and modernisation anchor. Hence, it would vouch for the swift integration of the digital, energy, and capital markets, giving its companies the tools to boost competitiveness. It would support moves to complete a real banking union, restoring the impaired credit channel and severing the damaging bank-sovereign loop. It would strive to make the European investment package more visible and more accessible, as the Greek economy is in need of a major reboot. In the end, Greece offers a useful lesson of its own when re-thinking integration or attempting to gauge Europe’s future. No amount of financial transfers or institutional support will work without the exercise of national responsibility. Reform should begin at home.

Source: Clingendael