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Institut für Europäische Politik e.V.

IEP

The aims of Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) are to: analyse and reflect European politics and integration for developing solutions on a European level also through interaction and networking with other think tanks, academics, NGOs, politicians and decision-takers at national and European level; feed the debate on the future of the EU nationally and Europe- wide, advance intercultural dialogue as well as European democracy and citizenship; develop effective activities for promoting the transfer of research results into political practice, to various stakeholders of civil society and a wider audience of citizens through their involvement in national and multilateral discussions; disseminate knowledge and information about the EU's institutions and policies, values and principles through appropriate publications for key multipliers and the wider public.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Daniel Freund (Member of the European Parliament) and Transparency International Liaison Office to the European Union and

1 Feb 2024 · The Rule of Law ahead of the EU elections

Meeting with Daniel Freund (Member of the European Parliament) and Notre Europe - Institut Jacques Delors / Notre Europe - Jacques Delors Institute

29 Sept 2022 · The Future of the Rule of Law in Europe

Meeting with Daniel Freund (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Aug 2022 · Institut für Europäische Politik e.V.

Response to Evaluation of support to Civil Society in enlargement and neighbourhood

14 May 2018

Input following 3 priorities for EU support to CSOs: 1. Conducive environment for CSOs  - CS support is strongly needed (post-soviet legacy), therefore the level of funding should be increased;  - It is crucial to spread the funding from the capitals to the periphery and to grass root organizations; - Gap in support structures for mid-size regional CSO should be filled (too established for European Endowment for Democracy funding, too small/ not enough capacity for EU grants); - CS is changing, new mechanisms needed to support ad-hoc movements, local civic activism, etc; - EU should put more pressure on government institutions in EaP countries to involve independent CS in the policy making process; - EU should encourage easier input from the local level (e.g. through creation of regional clusters of the EaP CSF National Platforms); - Financial environment: • EU should put pressure on governments to create a CSO friendly environment (consider as conditionality!) to decrease nationally regulated burdens regarding tax regulation, financial administration, ability to receive foreign funding, currency risk, VAT exemption, etc; • Administration of funds must be simplified for small/local/regional CSOs • Co-funding obligations in small scale projects should be smaller or eliminated to allow more organizations to apply for funds; • Procedures for quality insurance of projects should be improved, since often a lot of resources are used to fulfill mere reporting/administrative requirements.  2. CSO capacity building  - CSO tandems/mentoring/matching systems (peer-to-peer learning according to thematic focuses) should be significantly increased, e.g. between CSO from Western Balkans and EaP countries. To ensure outputs and effectiveness, the focus must lie on practical cooperation, not on conferences and debate forums; - More trainings/funding for trainings on civic education needed to increase knowledge on the EU and EU Association (fight myths and false expectations); - building up financial and administrative capacity of smaller regional CSOs through smaller grants or broader re-granting schemes; - EU PCM trainings needed to enable more organizations to participate in EU CfPs; - EU visibility in the peripheries (e.g. countryside, small towns and villages) should be increased through public events or targeted funding of local CSOs.  3. Structured participation of CSO in policy cycle - Since EU conditionality towards ENP countries is weaker compared to pre-accession countries, support to CS is even more important to ensure a pro-European/pro-Reform stance within the population and to exercise a bottom-up leverage on government policy; - The organized civil society (CSOs) are often perceived as not representing the interest of the “civil society”, following their own or their donor’s agenda, therefore funding for NGOs with a broad popular basis should be used to increase the visibility/legitimacy of EU funding and value promotion; - In parallel, funding of specialized CSOs whose input is used to critically follow the implementation of reforms according to the association agreement should continue and be extended (long term grants); - The role of the EaP CSF and its national chapters needs to be further developed in order to gain the legitimacy and acceptance of the core CS(Os); - co-existing civil society structures like the National Platforms of the EaP CSF and the CS Platforms (as part of the Association Agreements) in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine should be streamlined; - EaP CSF is regarded as a meet and greet forum with minimum output. EU should push for better output and for the inclusion of regional CSO representatives; - Reform of the CSF should be closely accompanied by the EU to solve several problems: • too little engagement of EU CSOs, • short term mandates, • working groups often not efficient and lack quality, • lack of attractiveness to get involved by larger CSOs of the EaP countries.
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Meeting with Matthias Ruete (Director-General Migration and Home Affairs)

26 Sept 2017 · Lunch Debate on the future of the Common European Asylum System

Response to Revision of the European Citizens' Initiative

15 Jun 2017

The revision of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) regulation comes at a crucial time in European politics. Following Frans Timmermans’ commitment to enhance the open dialogue of the European Commission with EU citizens in a moment when the ECI is running out of breath, the revision will give new impetus to the instrument. The Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) welcomes the publication of the related roadmap and offers its expertise to find untapped opportunities for improvement. The feedback provided in the attached document is meant to contribute to the improvement of the ECI by tackling the following problems: 1. Lack of clarity and transparency at the registration stage and the high rate of refusals or partial registrations of the proposed ECIs 2. The divergences between and the level of signatories' data requirements in the different Member States, (resulting in complexity, administrative cost for Member States and the risk of excluding some groups of citizens) 3. The personal liability of citizens who set up ECIs, combined with the lack of legal personality of the citizens' committees, act as a deterrent to the setting up of ECIs in view of the heavy responsibility for the collected data 4. The examination of and follow-up given to the initiatives having successfully collected the required support The suggestions formulated by the IEP can be found in the attached document.
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Response to Interim evaluation of the implementation of the Internal Security Fund 2014-2020

31 May 2017

Internal Security Fund Recommendations Institut für Europäische Politik The three key messages for the improvement of the ISF are to be found in the file attached -Piecemeal improvements -Relevance -Sustainability: the perils of stretching flexibility About the IEP: IEP functions as an interface between EU citizens, politicians, decision-makers, the academic world and organisations of civil society at national and European level. It implements its activities in the form of national and international seminars, conferences, fora, study groups, transnational cooperation projects with partner institutes in the EU member states, teaching commitments at German universities and in international master's study programmes, lectures and public debates, publications such as its journal "integration", multi-author books such as the "Jahrbuch der Europäischen Integration"(Yearbook of European Integration) and "Europe from A to Z" and internet publications such as the "EU-28 Watch" with contributions from IEP’s 33 partner institutes in EU member, accession and candidate states, which are disseminated EU-wide in English and wherever possible translated into the native language of the respective partner institute. The multimedia-based distribution of results via web/web 2.0 including IEP's recently relaunched website, the monthly IEP newsletter, facebook and twitter, and the development and implementation of simulation seminars on EU affairs reach a wider and younger audience and have a strong leverage effect.
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Response to Interim evaluation of the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020)

22 May 2017

The aims of the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) are to: analyse and reflect European politics and integration for developing solutions on a European level also through interaction and networking with other think tanks, academics, NGOs, politicians and decision-takers at national and European level; feed the debate on the future of the EU nationally and Europe-wide, advance intercultural dialogue as well as European democracy and citizenship; develop effective activities for promoting the transfer of research results into political practice, to various stakeholders of civil society and a wider audience of citizens through their involvement in national and multilateral discussions; disseminate knowledge and information about the EU's institutions and policies, values and principles through appropriate publications for key multipliers and the wider public (and not only a specialised community). Feedback on the Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme is attached.
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