Description
As a new EU member state Romania needs to strengthen civil society expertise in key areas of negotiation, especially in an increasingly unpredictable political and international context. The project aims at increasing the expertise of the Romanian Center for European Policies and its NGOs partners to react, to provide research and to bring expertise to the decision makers in four areas of public policy extremely important in the future EU debates. The experts that project will bring together will analyze four policy areas where crucial decisions at the EU level are expected in the short and medium term: Justice and anti-corruption policies, Home Affairs, Energy policies and Economic governance. Each of the four topics will be approached through consultations with NGOs the representatives of the business environment, thus creating theme coalitions and a coherent consultation pattern between officials and the associative environment. The project will benefit civil society experts, decision makers, NGO’s in issue based coalitions, high level officials through an coherent framework of debates on EU policies.
Summary of project results
The “Informed, Alert and Influential in EU Negotiations–Expertise and Consultations in European Policies” project had as objective to develop the capacity of the Romanian Centre for European Policies (CRPE) and its partner NGOs, in order to promptly react to European evolutions, to debate with the official and associative environments the best positioning for Romania and to propose intelligent solutions in four areas of public policy. The project responded to an expertise and consultation deficit in Romania. It analysed four policy areas important for our country, in which crucial decisions will be made at the EU level in the short and medium term: Justice and anti-corruption policies with the focus on European Public Prosecutor's office, Home Affairs and the reform of Schengen governance, Energy policies, Economic governance with focus on Romania’s action to the Eurozone. The promoter consolidated the expertise of its employed team and its affiliate experts and implemented standard procedures for research, publication and dissemination, ensuring the quality of its services and publications. Each of the four topics were approached through consultations with NGOs interested in that specific subject and representatives of the business environment, thus creating theme coalitions and a coherent consultation pattern between officials and the associative environment. The consolidation of CRPE as an European think-tank was confirmed by the affiliation to the Trans-European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA). TEPSA is the oldest (1974) and most prestigious network of European think-tanks. The project proposed activities for positioning the CRPE as an active and influential member of this network. Given the recommendations issued by CRPE for the government, the application of a reglementation regarding the governance of the state energy company was improved.
Summary of bilateral results