Present Projects

Advocacy for European Rolling Enlargement

1. Think Europe Network (TEN) - a virtual Center for European Studies

TEN is a network of think-tanks created by SAR which advocates for an increase role of Europe in its border regions, and the gradual Europeanization and inclusion into Europe of the countries of Western Balkans and the Black Sea area. TEN will engage in research, consulting and advocacy. Its key two areas are on the Europeanization of what is now the European periphery and the deepening of Europeanization in the already integrated countries. TEN will advocate common positions towards certain issues of the network, organize comparative research on European integration, extract recommendations based on best practices, and will advocate them both at the European level and at the country level.

2. EUROREG. Sixth Framework Program

This project seeks to study comparatively the effects of European economic integration on ethnic minority and national majority mobilization in regions near or across border areas in EU member states and CESE accession countries. Nine cases of minority inhabited regions, five in EU member states and four in accession countries of Central-East and Southeast Europe (CESE), were selected for this study. The central topic is the reconfiguration of regional institutional-economic resources and opportunities induced by EU cohesion policy and the human rights and minority protection regime, and their impact on the economic interests, cultural identities and political interest representation of local ethnic minorities and national majorities in the EU and in CESE. More specifically, this research carried out between 2004 and 2007 by a consortium of institutes from Greece, Italy, Spain, UK, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania (SAR) examines how the changing opportunities and constraints induced by EU regional economic and human rights policies

a. alter the patterns of local political participation and economic activity of local ethnic minorities and national majorities,

b. change their relations with national and ethnic political parties and state administration, as well as minority political and cultural demands vis-à-vis the central state.

c. and influence the way local minorities and majorities view their identification with a national or ethnic community, their rights and obligations as citizens of a state, as well as the way they conceptualise ‘Europe.’

3. Captive States, Divided Societies. Volkswagen funded project

Captive States, Divided Societies: Institutions of Southeastern Europe in Historical Comparative Perspective is a research comparative project designed by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi together with the Center for Applied Policy in Munich, with financial aid of the Volkswagen Stiftung. Twelve researchers/authors and five reviewers will work between 2005 and 2007 to produce an innovative politico-historical textbook on Southeastern Europe and a policy paper informed by the textbook research. The objectives are:

·         To develop a better approach to interpret the history of the region, leading to a clearer understanding of the present, and an attempt at forecasting the future, of a zone of great political, strategic, economic and social interest for Europe

·         To offer a survey of the current situation of institutional development in the region (“rules of the game”) relevant for the present process of transformation and integration; current institutions will be studied in their historical evolution, continuity and discontinuity, with a focus on causes of the current institutional patterns operating in the Balkans.

·         To increase public awareness of the need of sustainable and informed input of the European Union in the transformation of Southeastern Europe, an area missing from the first wave of enlargement, but likely to feature in the next ones.

·         To create a sound basis for the development of policy advice in order to provide practical guidance for decision-makers, planners and designers of policies from or for the region.