International Policy Fellowship

Activity Report

 

August 2003 – March 2004

 

 

 

During the period of August 2003 – March 2004, the activities of the fellow were primarily focused on reviewing the research and policy papers, collecting additional information on the EU Policy impact in Lithuania, reading books and materials. During the period in review, 2 meetings/seminars were attended: one in Latvia (Daugavpils) and one in India (New Delhi). By the end of March 2004, the fellow produced a finalized policy paper and by the end of April 2004 – a finalized research paper. The policy paper was published in 100 copies with the research paper attached as a CD-rom. These materials were distributed to the libraries and governmental institutions.

 

Below please find the elaborations regarding each activity:

 

  1. Review of draft research and policy papers.

 

In August 2003, the initial drafts of the research and policy papers were posted on the web site www.policy.hu. The feed-backs were received from the individual mentors. Mr. Ramunas Linartas, Desk Officer in DG “Regio” of the European Commission commented on the relevance of the chosen cases to the actual EC-accession country relationship in economic policy making. Mr. Darius Matusevicius, Director of the Financial Control Department of the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance commented on the relevance of the cases in the field of financial control methodology in EC-Lithuania relations and made suggestions regarding the improvement of these case materials. The draft research and policy papers were unfortunately not commented by the group mentor. As a result, activities in stage II of the project were going on without having the group mentor’s position in mind.

 

As a result of the review efforts, the final research and policy papers were drafted and placed on the Internet site www.policy.hu.

 

One of the major review decisions taken in stage II was the decision to narrow down the scope of research to include the EU dimension only and to exclude the World Bank’s influence on the national policy outcomes. The decision was taken after taking into consideration the results of the interviews with the officials of the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance, confirming that the World Bank has recently played a limited role in shaping national policy outcomes. Thus, although it played this role in early 1990s, it is no longer the case.

 

As a result, the title of the publication was changed to “The Policy Approach of the European Union to Development Problems in Transitional Economies”.

 

  1. Publication and dissemination

 

The policy paper was published by the printing house in 100 copies. The research paper was attached to the publication in the form of a CD-rom. The publication (60 copies) was distributed to the libraries and governmental institutions. 40 copies shall be distributed to participants of the seminars, in which the author is going to make presentations on the EU structural funds (the Lithuanian Institute of Public Administration etc).

 

  1. Meeting in Daugavpils

 

In December 2003, a meeting with the representatives of Daugavpils public institutions in charge of tourism development took place on issues of cross-border cooperation. The meeting lasted for several hours and there was a possibility to exchange opinions with the Latvian side on the role of the European Commission in shaping national policies of both countries.

 

  1. Conference in New Delhi

 

With the approval of the IPF, a three-day conference of the Global Development Network “Understanding Reform” was attended in New Delhi, India. The conference was interesting from a global perspective – a lot of papers were presented on the role of the global governance bodies (in this case – primarily IMF and the World Bank) in developing economies of Africa and Latin America. The proceedings of the conference were taken into consideration in the research (i.e. the types of influence of global governance institutions on various countries of the world, as well as the more limited influence of the IMF/World Bank on the transitional countries of Eastern Europe).

 

  1. The financial report

 

The financial report has been compiled and forwarded to the IPF office.