The Jean Monnet Center of Excellence for EU Policy Transposition - EUPOLTRANS (2022-2024) Caucasus University, Georgia

The Jean Monnet Center of Excellence for EU Policy Transposition (EUPOLTRANS) activities aim to promote teaching, research and policy debates in EU specific policies: environment, consumer protection, competition policy, labor, public administration, foreign and security policy, that are covered by the AA/DCFTA and are due to be transposed in 2022-2024 in Georgia. By promoting teaching and research and enabling Caucasus University and wider society EUPOLTRANS will encourage higher citizens’ participation in spreading EU policies and values and assess the process, deficit, delay and convergence of Georgia with EU policies covered by the AA/DCFTA, contributing to a more effective, inclusive and knowledge-based AA implementation process.

Over the course of three years (2022-2024) EUPOLTRANS will accomplish:

TEACHING: addresses EU studies and aims to develop a teaching package for the Course - “EU

Policies Transposition in Georgia” (course includes 8 modules) to be taught via six rounds of four day long intensive seminars (3 in Tbilisi and 3 in regions).

CoE will make the course widely accessible via developing the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) “EU Policy Transposition in Georgia”.

CoE will micro-credential the course “EU Policy Transposition in Georgia” into a flexible, inclusive form of delivering specific knowledge to those citizens who cannot undertake full-time studies.

Caucasus University will also update at least 7 courses, which it currently teaches at various faculties (Caucasus School of Government, Caucasus School of Business, Caucasus School of Economics, Caucasus Schools of Humanities, Caucasus School of Law) with the components of EU policy transposition.

RESEARCH: CoE will address the need to generate scholarly knowledge and insights that can support EU policy-making.

CoE will develop discussion briefs on the status of transposition of EU legislation in Georgia and its implementation in chosen policy areas (environment, consumer protection, competition policy, labor, public administration, foreign and security policy).

Experts’ team will prepare seven 8000-word research papers on each policy area.

POLICY DEBATES: This component aims to foster dialogue between the academic world and society. The products will be shared with the Government (central and local level), political parties, diplomatic community and wider society through the three rounds of annual policy roundtables. The project team will take stock of ideas from these debates, incorporating them in final research papers. The project experts will also conduct seven structured interviews with EU experts in the selected policy areas to plug in the EU experts' qualified and scholarly opinions into the internal policy debates. Project includes active outreach measures to ensure spreading of knowledge about EU policies and Georgia EU integration to wider society via CoE website and Facebook page.

Project Staff:

• Sergi Kapanadze, project coordinator, senior expert/researcher, Caucasus School of Governance (CSG), Expert area: EU Policies and Institutional decision-making process;
• Eka Kardava, expert/researcher, Caucasus School of Law (CSL), expert area: EU labor regulations and their transposition in Georgia;
• Aleksandre Mikeladze, expert/researcher, Caucasus School of Business (CSB), Expert area: EU Environment policy and their transposition in Georgia;
• Vakhtang Zaalishvili, expert/researcher, Caucasus School of Law (CSL), Expert area: EU’s consumer protection directives and their transposition in Georgia;
• Nino Dolidze, expert/researcher, Caucasus School of Governance (CSG), expert area: Convergence with the EU’s public administration standards in Georgia;
• Solomon Menabdishvili, expert/researcher, Caucasus School of Law (CSL), EU’s competition directives and their transposition in Georgia;
• Ioseb Nanobashvili, expert, Caucasus School of Governance (CSG), expert area: EU Institutions decision-making specifics and practices;
• Eka Akobia, project co-coordinator, expert/researcher, Caucasus School of Governance (CSG), Expert area: EU foreign and security policy and Georgia’s convergence;
• Tsitsi Chubinidze, administrative staff, Caucasus School of Governance (CSG).

For detail information, please visit the project website