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IPF Fellowship 2005-2006

Nicu Popescu

The conflict resolution dimension of the ENP.

In 2006 I undertook the following activities as part of the IPF fellowship:

Research and advocacy trips: 

• January: Moscow, Russia and Kiev, Ukraine. Research on Russian interests in the secessionist entities of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.
• February, presentation on “EU and the Black Sea region”, at a winter school of diplomats from Southeast Europe and South Caucasus, Diplomatic Institute, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bulgaria.  
• March: research trips to Tbilisi, Georgia and the secessionist region of Abkhazia. In Abkhazia I have met the de facto president of the secessionist republic, the foreign minister and other high level de facto officials. As part of advocacy activities I gave a joint lecture with Dov Lynch on the “European Neighbourhood Policy” at the “Abkhaz State University”, and another lecture on the “EU and Abkhazia” at a civil society roundtable.       
• March: presentation of the IPF policy paper “EU and South Caucasus: leaning lessons from Moldova and Ukraine”, at a conference in Yerevan, Armenia.
• April: IPF seminar in Budapest.
• April: conference on “EU-Moldova relations” organized by IRIS and the Ministry of Defence of France, Paris. I made a presentation on Moldovan policies towards conflict resolution in Transnistria.      
• May: research and advocacy trip with Michael Emerson to Moldova/Transnistria and Odessa, Ukraine. In Tiraspol, Transnistria we gave lectures on ENP and Transnistria in front of students of the Tiraspol university. In Ukraine we visited the Odessa headquarters and two field offices (in Kuchurgan) of the EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine.  
• June: I attended a seminar on EU conflict prevention and crises management policies at the University of Loughborough, United Kingdom. I was a discussant of a paper on “EU Conflict prevention policies in the neighbourhood”.
• June: Advocacy and research trip to Washington DC and New York with IPF. Public launch of Policy perspectives series.   
• July: in mid July I left Brussels.

Research and policy papers:

In 2006 I have published three papers written as part of IPF.

• The EU and Transnistria: from deadlock to sustainable settlement, was published on PDC and in Moldovan media.
• The EU and South Caucasus: Learning lessons from Moldova and Ukraine, was published at the Georgian Foundation for International and Strategic Studies, Tbilisi, Georgia, as well as Eurojournal.org. Parts of the paper were translated in Armenian and distributed to policy makers in Armenia.
• Outsourcing de facto statehood: Russia and the secessionist entities in Georgia and  Moldova, was published in June as a book chapter in Policy Perspectives, and as CEPS Policy Brief 109.     

• In mid September I will finish a policy brief on “Why some secessionists are less democratic than others?”
• By the end of 2006 two big papers will be finished. 1) Russian interests in the secessionist entities in Georgia and Moldova (some 50-60 pages), and 2) EU policies towards the conflicts in Georgia (some 50-60 pages). Both papers are 90% finished, but need re-editing and policy recommendations.

Next steps:

• Continue advocacy activities. I already have 4 conferences scheduled for September-October, with the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Lithuanian and Moldovan foreign ministries, and the University of Madrid. 
• Finish two remaining papers on EU and Russian policies towards the secessionist entities and publish.

30 August 2006