“Money Can’t Buy EU Love – European Funds and the Brexit Referendum” is the title of a paper by Dr. Jan Fidrmuc of Brunel University, and immediately evokes images of several months ago when Remain voters lined the streets of London with ‘We Love EU’ placards and gold and blue flags, as well as recent savage arguments in Brussels over the best course of action as the continent struggles to get over the shock of a member state opting to leave the union.

Despite being a predominantly rural country, Georgia suffers from extensive issues related to agricultural development. To this end, ENPARD, a European Union rural development program, has assisted with the establishment of a number of cooperatives throughout the country. The success stories of two of these prompted a recent visit by members of the Agricultural Policy Research Centre.

On June 2, 2016, the second EU-supported Farmers’ Congress of Georgia was held at the Tbilisi exposition center. Around 150 farmers from different parts of Georgia had an opportunity to meet with the government representatives and discuss the current challenges of Georgian agriculture.

ISET PI researcher Maka Chitanava participated in the “International Summer School on Migration Research”, organized within the framework of two EU-funded projects, “Enhancing Georgia’s Migration Management” (an ENIGMMA project implemented in Georgia by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development), and the “Support for Implementation of the Mobility Partnership with Azerbaijan” project (a MOBILAZE endeavor implemented in Azerbaijan by the ICMPD).

This project identifies sectors and subsectors of the Georgian economy which have a higher potential for growth and which the Georgian Government should prioritise when designing strategies to attract foreign investors and increase EU export levels post DCFTA.