ELIAMEP

The latest report of ELIAMEP’s South-East Europe Programme is entitled “What’s in a Name? Greek Public Attitudes towards the ‘Name Dispute’ and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 2018”. It is a comprehensive examination of all the major issues pertaining to the name dispute and bilateral relations between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It also devles deeper into various dimensions that allow the reader to understand the complexity of the Greek public attitudes about the issue. The report provides also comparative perspectives with the previous poll on the name issue that was conducted by ELIAMEP in 2016. Our two polls (2018 and 2016) are the only ones in Greece that focus entirely on the name dispute and Greece-FYROM relations. Both polls were implemented with the cooperation of the Public Opinion Research Unit of the University of Macedonia and were financed by the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, New York.

The full text of the report can be accessed here.

Τhe South-East Europe Programme of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) has the pleasure to invite you to an event on:

“The name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: The role of public opinion and civil society, and the prospects for the future”

The event will be held in English on Friday 30 March 2018, from 11:00 to 13:00 at the Electra Palace Athens Hotel, Meeting Room Alkioni  (18- 20, N. Nikodimou Str., 10557 Athens)

Speakers

Ioannis Armakolas, Assistant Professor  and ‘Stavros Costopoulos’ Research Fellow and Head of South-East Europe Programme, ELIAMEP

Presentation of the findings of opinion poll about  the name dispute

 David Phillips, Director,Program on Peace-buidling and Rights, Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, Head, Southeast Europe Dialogue Project

Cross border civil society cooperation initiatives between Greece and FYROM

 

Discussants

Alexandros Mallias, Ambassador (ad hon.)

Angelos Athanasopoulos, Foreing Policy Editor, “To VIMA” (tbc)

 

Dr. Thanos Dokos, Director General of ELIAMEP, will moderate the discussion

 

Students will receive a certificate of attendance.

Registration is required to attend the event.

RSVP by  28 Martch 2108

Ms. Nina Papaioannou,

Τ: 210 7257111, F: 210 7257114,

E-mail: nina@eliamep.gr

The collapse of the talks in Crans-Montana caused significant concerns to the Turkish Cypriots that believe in the Federal solution of the Cyprus issue. These segments of the community, which hope that the establishment of a united federal Cyprus will lead to the resolution of all their socio-political and economic problems are searching for a political framework through which they will channel their dissatisfaction and their aspirations. At the same time, the Turkish Cypriot community, being cut off from the international scene, depends solely on Turkey and the Anatolian economy which is currently facing systemic problems. Within this context, the Turkish Cypriots understand that the need for the social, political and economic reconstruction of “TRNC” is urgent.

Please find the Working Paper here.

Voting in America: What does the future hold?Wednesday, March 14, 6:30 PM
Museum of Cycladic Art, AthensPlease RSVP here

There are more than half a million elected officials in America, from the dog catcher of Duxbury, Vermont, to the President of the United States. Americans are called upon to vote more frequently and amply than in any other democratic country in history.

Yet voting in America has come to be plagued by a growing number of woes, from perennial voter disaffection to an allegedly outmoded electoral regime, from an excessively decentralized approach nation-wide to election administration to a widespread reliance on shoddy technology and a singular lack of security against hacking, meddling, and malevolent interference by external actors.

2018 is another election year, and the stakes are high. Can citizens cast their ballots with confidence? Are elections safe from outside intervention? Are there any signs of improvement in how Americans administer their elections? How drastic is the current state of affairs?

In collaboration with the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), the Dukakis Center will convene a panel of experts to share their thoughts on the future of voting in America. The present event is a follow up to a round table on “Voting in America” staged in Thessaloniki in October 2016.”The Future of Voting in America”

• Michael Ertel, Supervisor of Elections, Seminole County (Florida)
• Charles Stewart III, Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Aristides N. Hatzis, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Law & Theory of Institutions,University of Athens
• Moderator: Athanasios Ellis. Editor in Chief, Kathimerini English Edition

The event will be in English

The closed event “Tour d’ Europe” about “Europe’s research and Innovation Policy”, co-organised by RISE (Research, Innovation, Science Experts group) & ELIAMEP  was held in Athens on February 12th 2018.

It was hosted by the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and Professor Achilleas Mitsos on its behalf. The participants from the Greek side included Patricia Kyprianidou, secretary general of R&D, as well as representatives from the private sector, universities, public research organisations, foundations and policy advisers to the government. The RISE delegation was headed by Mary Ritter, with Teresa Riera Madurell, Luke Georghiou, the RISE book authors Andrea Bonaccorsi, Lena Tsipouri, Andres Rodriguez-Pose, and the EU expert Ester Martinez-Ros.

Main messages from the event:

1. Openness can help in this transformation. Open to society, open to newcomers, an open flow of knowledge and people between universities and firms, in trans-European networks. But openness needs a frame, to create circular, non-linear flows. Researchers should have incentives to return, and the value created from open data should be shared between the researcher and the entrepreneur.
2. Use under-utilised resources.  Build a system allowing the optimal utilisation of resources in Europe. Foster meetings between excellent research and the capacity to innovate. This should not be two separate worlds. The knowledge-innovation nexus is broken, in particular in many Southern and Eastern European countries.
3. Shift from a rule-based to a people-focused policy. Create incentives for research and a culture of “knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship”. The regulatory framework must be simplified and recognize that R&I require risk taking and trust.
4. FP and Structural Funds are two separate policies but the implementation needs synergies. They are two different policies with different objectives. However, synergies could be strengthened in the implementation. Smart specialisation strategies have been positive to create long-term visions and gather actors in new platforms. But they are limited by existing firm structures, by a lack of critical mass and limited networking across regions. Synergies are also hampered by a heavy bureaucracy, double audit requirements and contradicting rules for the exploitation of R&I outcomes. For Greece, these legal constraints are worsened by specific austerity measures.
5. The next Framework Programme should combine continuity with renewal. Investing in innovative firms with the EIC is needed through long-term finance, independent from the crisis-stricken banks.  Mission-oriented R&I is also a very useful idea to connect to citizens, work across policies in a systemic way, and scale-up national missions. The missions should be selected carefully, so they respond to the needs of all European countries. Finally, Open Science and Open Data should be promoted to increase the use of the outcomes of the FP projects. However, openness should always be sensitive to the question: “For whom is it open?”

About the “Tour d’Europe”: In autumn 2017 and winter 2018, the RISE group (Research, Innovation, Science Experts group) will meet with independent Think Tanks in European capitals. The reflections will focus on where EU R&I policy should be heading and their role in the future of Europe.  The Tour d’Europe is conceived in the context of the President Juncker’ initiative to have a wide and open reflection in Europe on the future direction of the European project. The Tour d’Europe will focus on the field of research and innovation and its role in the wider European policy. It is a dialogue with among independent Think Tanks, not directly connected to national administration. The main interlocutors are policy advisers, economists, academics, and intellectuals, organised in well-recognised platforms. National authorities, as well as the EU representation, should be informed from the very beginning of the organisation.

 

  

The paper takes as starting point the call by President Vucic of Serbia for a dialogue on the future of Kosovo with a view to reaching a historic agreement between Serbs and Albanians that would help his country deal with the Kosovo issue and would make it possible for it to secure a future in the European Union. The author attempts an assessment of various efforts for settling the dispute between Serbia and Kosovo, including the Ahtisaari Plan of 2007 and the Brussels Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina currently going on, and tries to clarify some ambiguities and misunderstandings still prevailing about basic parameters of the conflict and of the European integration of the two sides. An analysis of the principles set by Mr. Vucic to guide the debate between Serbs and Albanians, namely that (a) Serbia does not covet what doesn’t belong to her and will not relinquish what belongs to her, and (b) the protection of the Serbian religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo is of paramount importance to Serbia, leads to the conclusion that the envisaged agreement should have (a) Serbia recognize that it does not own Kosovo’s statehood, which rightfully belongs to Kosovo, and (b) Kosovo accord an exceptionalism status to the Serbian religious and cultural heritage in its territory. The author further argues that the ideal agreement between the two sides turns out to also be a possible one.

You can read the Working Paper here

“The Institution of Justice” was the topic of the speech by Mr. Giorgos Pagoulatos, Professor of European Policy and Economy at the Economic University of Athens, during the 10th Conference of Transparency International under the title “Why the institutions do not work”, held at the Divani Caravel Hotel on December 8th, 2017. In his speech Professor Pagoulatos underlined that more guarantees are needed for politicians in order for Justice to function properly.

To read the full speech in Greek please, click here

ELIAMEP organized a round-table discussion on “Labor Market and Integration of Refugees: Reality and Opportunities”, which was held on 31 January 2018. The aim of the discussion was to map out the absorption capacities in the labor market as well as to identify the steps that would make the efforts to integrate refugees into the labor market operational and effective.

For the purpose of this meeting, representatives from the Ministry of Migration Policy, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, representatives of companies and businesses, non-governmental organizations aiming at the connection of refugees with the labor market and representatives of professional confederations were invited to participate. The event aimed at networking among the stakeholders and highlighting good practices from the point of view of integration.

The event was initiated and organised by the National Coordinator for the European Web Site on Integration (EWSI), Mrs Marina Nikolova, and, the discussion was moderated by Prof. Dia Anagnostou, Assistant Professor of Politics at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences and Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP.

Speakers:

• Mrs. Panayota Dionyssopoulou, General Director of the Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs
• Mrs. Maria Fassari, International Relations Department, Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs (Presentation of the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees)
• Mr. Athanasios Vitsentzatos, Director of the Social Integration Department, Ministry of Migration Policy
• Mr. Vaios Kotsios, Research Assossiate of the National Institute of Labour and Human Resources
• Mr. Lefteris Papayannakis, Vice Mayor of Athens
• Presentations of project carried out by small enterprises and NGOs targeting the integration into the labour market for refugees and migrants: Mrs. Katerina Kapnisi – Career Counsellor – Coordinator at Generation 2.0, Mrs. Fiori Zafeiropoulou – Founder and CEO SOFFA Social Fashion Factory, Mr. Andreas Stefanidis – Founder, Academy of entrepreneurship

Other participants:

Mrs. Anastasia Sikiaridi – Livelihoods Officer, International Rescue Committee,Mrs. Ilektra Simitsi – Livelihoods Manager, International Rescue Committee, Mrs. Ioanna Porfyri – Research Fellow at Small Enterprises’ Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (IME GSEVEE), Representative of the Ministry of Labour, Social Insurance and Social Solidarity and Representative of the Greek Council of Refugees (GCR)

The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) under the Mercator European Dialogue (MED) program, successfully organized the “Energy Security Nexus” workshop in Brussels on 29-30 January 2018. European MPs and researchers attended the event, who had the opportunity to exchange views on the subject and visit the CORESO offices, a company in the field of energy. This exchange has been initiated under the framework of the Mercator European Dialogue, a project organised by the German Marshall Fund of the United States in cooperation with the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, and the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy in Athens and is funded by Stiftung Mercator and since 2017 also by the King Baudouin Foundation

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

Within this volume, researchers from three countries have made an assessment of the different steps that economic and humanitarian migrants experience during their journey across Europe. The volume presents the results of a research programme developed by FEPS and SOLIDAR on the topic of migration and integration.

With three outstanding contributions covering the cases of Greece, Italy and Germany, the volume aims to assess the procedures in place from first reception at arrival to the integration in society and labour market of asylum seekers and migrants, with a focus on women and minors. The level of involvement of NGOs in the reception system and integration policies in the three countries is also explored and assessed in the volume. The book also includes a photographic project which complements the assessment made by the authors with visual testimonies of the situations faced by migrants on their journey across Europe.

The case study on Greece, titled “The Long Road to Integration- Possibilities and Obstacles for Newly Arrived Asylum Seekers in Greece” was written by Dr. Angeliki Dimitriadi.

The book is available to download here

After many years of virtual inaction, the dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is again attracting political attention in Athens, Skopje and important Western capitals. In the latest issue of ELIAMEP’s Strategic Analyses series, prominent analysts offer their views on the latest developments in the diplomatic relations between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

On the occasion of Saad Hariri’s disappearance in Saudi Arabia and his tele-resignation from his seat as prime minister of Lebanon, this note discusses various parameters regarding the background of these events. You can access the Briefing Note here.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

Following the publication of ELIAMEP White Book on Greek Foreign Policy, Defence and Security, the Academy of Athens gave an award to the Foundation. President of ELIAMEP, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis received the prize on 21 December 2017.

Professor Loukas Tsoukalis said after the ceremony:

‘This prize is a great honor and recognition of ELIAMEP’s work in the last 30 years. Congratulations to all his members, associates and friends’.

Tuesday, 09 January 2018 – 14.30 to 16.30, Brussels
Policy Dialogue

2018: A turning point for European integration?

Speaker(s):

Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Director of Studies, European Policy Centre
Zaki Laïdi, Professor of International Relations, Sciences Po, Paris;
former Advisor to the Prime Minister of France
Loukas Tsoukalis, Professor of European Integration, University of Athens
Herman Van Rompuy, President, European Policy Centre; President Emeritus of the European Council
Fabian Zuleeg, Chief Executive, European Policy Centre

ELIAMEP is among the European think tanks which contributed to the study: Facing Russia’s strategic challenge: Security developments from the Baltic to the Black Sea, published by the European Parliament. Dr Panagiota Manoli and Dr Theodore Tsakiris are the authors. You can access the study here.

You can read here the article on Erdogan’s Greece visit which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 13 December 2017 [in Greek].

President of ELIAMEP Professor Loukas Tsoukalis wrote an article in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini on Europe and Social Democracy. You can access it here.

Ambassador (ad.hon.) Pavlos Apostolidis gave an interview in Dimikratiki of Rhodes newspaper analysing Greek-Turkish relations. The content is available here (in Greek).