ISET Policy Institute was contracted by the OECD to assess selected policy dimensions of the EU Small Business Act for Georgia. In order to complete this task, ISET-PI conducted desk research of the existing literature and conducted interviews with government officials, private sector representatives and members of the SME community, including civil society.

ISET-PI played a relatively minor role in this project, supporting a consortium consisting of Ecorys (Netherlands) and CASE (Poland). The study was commissioned by the European Commission (DG Trade). The Georgian component of the study identified considerable compliance costs related to the EU-required phyto and veterinary controls, reflected in higher prices for meat and meat products, and an increase in EU meat exports to Georgia. These findings were reported to the Georgian Prime Minister’s office and to the consortium members.

Implemented as part of a larger international study, this Georgia country study assessed the consequences of increased migration as a result of possible changes in the EU migration policies with regard to the Eastern Partnership countries. Partnering with the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE), the ISET Policy Institute (ISET-PI) has embarked upon a country study of Georgia for a project titled The Costs and Benefits of Labour Mobility between the EU and the Eastern Partnership Partner Countries.