And International Studies Insitute For Regional - City

Insitute for Regional and International Studies
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Acknowledging the lack of informed public debate on the above mentioned questions, on December 18, 2006 the Institute for Regional and International Studies organized an expert roundtable. Deputy Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, MPs, representatives of foreign embassies, prominent experts and journalists working on the addressed issues attended the event and took part in the discussions. Generated policy analyses and recommendations were included in the final program publication entitled “Bulgaria for NATO – 2002”. Institutional analysis, public opinion surveys and case studies of best practices will be employed to elicit alternative policy solutions. IRIS also addressed these problem areas by generating policy analyses and recommendations based on the experience gained through the institute’s work in the Bulgaria and throughout the Balkans. IRIS is implementing the project by building special partnerships and cooperation throughout the transatlantic policy analysis community. IRIS program development team developed a strong outreach to experts and reform-minded officials in the Black Sea area and established a network for transferring expertise and common action. IRIS Quarterly Report is open to policy analyses from partner organizations from both sides of the Atlantic and SEE thus contributing to a presentation of diverse pool of views, interests, plans and strategies for the future of the region. It is providing analytical assistance and policy growth/development in the fields of regional security systems institutional development and infrastructure economic development. Ognyan Minchev, Marin Lessenski and Plamen Ralchev worked out IRIS’ Transatlantic Strategy for Black Sea Stabilization and Integration. Printed on regular basis, the report offers policy analyses, strategic papers, policy views and expectations in the fields of cooperative integration, security integration, political integration, and economic integration. Project activities include coordinating national, regional and international policy analysis distribution and communication in the forms of round table discussions and conferences.A major instrument for disseminating project information and results is IRIS Quarterly Report. Project aimed primarily at providing IRIS with the necessary resources and strengthening of its capacity to actively contribute to the process of policy formulation and implementation concerning Southeastern Europe. The comparative approach to evaluating institutional performances and structures, civic and political culture will contribute to transferring good governance practices. The duration of the project is one year and is being implemented with the financial support of the German Marshal Fund of the US. The final publication entitled Bulgaria for NATO – 2002 was published on-line and in print. The opportunities for joint projects and common actions were discussed with representatives of a variety of organizations in Georgia, Moldova and Armenia. The program is supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The Program was aimed at promoting strategies, policies and actions that will ultimately anchor the countries of the Black Sea region firmly to the Euro-Atlantic mainstream. The program was implemented in close cooperation with the Romanian Academic Society (SAR) in Bucharest, Romania and the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS-Viitorul) in Chisinau, Moldova and was supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The project findings will be conveyed to the target-groups in order to achieve policy impact and improve institutional performance. The project is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy. The project was supported by Freedom House with funding provided by the U.S. The proposed program built on the achievements of GMFUS and IRIS’ own efforts in the Black Sea region. The publication was targeted at and was distributed among foreign and security policy experts, experts on Europe, journalists, civic activists and opinion-leaders, institutions that provide analytical and information support to political bodies. The training component within this project will also enable local beneficiaries to employ ‘public scrutiny’ and ‘auditing’ procedures in forming the public policies of their countries. Within the program implementation IRIS built on its partnership to establish and extend a network of policy institutes and experts from the Black sea region.