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Working with policy-makers

Our Centre aims to bring insights and new perspectives to policy-makers and practitioners, to support their development, understanding and application of European law. We want to influence and inform policy-makers, and to have them influence us.

Influencing or informing policy-makers

  • Professor Everson's research on EU governance has helped the European Ombudsman's team to develop their work on integrating European citizens into EU decision-making.
  • Meetings with practitioner stakeholders and academics organised by the TARN network in September 2017 generated current and significant policy recommendations on EU agency operations. These then formed the basis for a subsequent series of policy briefing papers from TARN.
  • Dr Bruce-Jones' collaboration with the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) provides a conduit for his research to the Council of Europe and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, owing to the ERRC's consultative status on those two bodies.

Promoting dialogue between academics, policy-makers and practitioners

  • TARN moderated a series of dialogues between academics, policy-makers and other practitioners, on EU agency topics such as: budgets and accountability; expertise, transparency and independence; agency co-operation; and performance and effectiveness (the last being moderated by Professor Everson).  

Shaping our research to the needs of stakeholders

  • Policy-makers running EU agencies helped to shape TARN's research agenda, through participating in a series of dialogue events in 2016. They helped identify the priorities for research which included: the (over)reliance of EU agencies on soft law to perform their tasks; under-resourcing and how agencies should prioritise; and a lack of clarity in the relationships between the Commission and EU agencies. 

Generating resources for policy-makers and other practitioners

  • The briefings and commentaries Dr Bruce-Jones generates as part of his collaboration with the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) will constitute resources for the lawyers, activists and academics who form the ERCC's network of Roma Rights Defenders and supporters; or for those who look to the ERCC for advice.