The study -carried out by the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, with the contribution of SEERC, was entitled “Multi-level Governance in South East Europe – Institutional Innovation and Adaptation in Croatia, Greece, F.Y.R. Macedonia and Slovenia”. It commenced in 2006 and was completed three years later. The central question of the study was whether political engagement with the European Union has promoted multi-level governance in these states in three policy areas: cohesion (including pre-accession aid), environment and migration. Three independent rapporteurs evaluated the findings of the project, the methodology and its dissemination impact to reach unanimously the following conclusions (excerpts from the evaluation report):
“This is a highly impressive project, which is both theoretically vigorous and empirically novel”.
“The research has important implications for work on Europeanisation…it provides new insights into the concept of multi-level governance”.
“The quality of the analysis is excellent thanks to the experience of the Sheffield team. New knowledge is provided at both the theoretical and the empirical level”.
“The nominated outputs are to a very high standard…the fine grain of the empirical analysis makes a significant contribution to the understanding of these particular sectors and jurisdictions”.
In the frame of this project, SEERC hosted an international workshop in June 2009 with local and South East European experts and fieldworkers. Evaluation in this aspect was also favourable: “…another highlight of the research was the investigators’ explicit desire to engage policy practitioners in the formulation and evaluation of the project’s aims and findings. In particular, the hosting of a workshop in Thessaloniki, aimed primarily at practitioners from across the four countries, enabled the investigators to get valuable feedback on the project”.
Congratulations are extended to the Sheffield team from the Politics department for the excellent research and the collaboration with SEERC: Professor Andrew Taylor, Professor Ian Bache, Professor Andrew Geddes, and Dr. Charles Lees as well as to the team of fieldworkers from South East Europe: Mr. George Andreou, Ms. Gorica Atanasova, Mr. Darko Fercej, Ms. Elena Lazarou, Ms. Kumjana Novakova, Mr. Danijel Tomsic and Ms. Simona Zavratnik.
