EPRC Seminar: Pre-accession assistance as a mechanism of Europeanisation

On 5 May, EPRC hosted a seminar by Eleftherios Antonopoulos entitled 'Pre-accession assistance as a mechanism of Europeanisation: the effects of CARDS/IPA on administrative capacity in Croatia'. Eleftherios is a PhD student at EPRC. His presentation discussed the effects of the pre-accession assistance on administrative capacity in the Western Balkans, focusing in particular on the experiences of authorities in Croatia. The paper argued that EU pre-accession assistance exerts a positive role in Croatia as a learning process, however its effects on administrative capacity tend to be seasonal or particular to islands of excellence in the public sector and rarely become commonplace as due to structural difficulties in the state administration. The seminar was held as part of the 2009-2010 West Coast Seminar Series programme which is organised in conjunction with colleagues at the Universities of the West of Scotland (Paisley) and Strathclyde who specialise in the study of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe