ISET’s director recently participated in the EU Stronger Together Conference, centered on the EaP Neighbourhood: Promoting the Clean Energy Transition in Eastern Partnership Countries. The conference, highlighting the key achievements and goals under clean energy initiatives, was hosted by the European Commission, the EU Delegation to Eastern Partnership Countries, Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER), Energy Community Secretariat (EnC), and International Energy Agency (IEA).

Between April 19-21, ISET PI’s Agricultural and Rural Policy Research Center (APRC) conducted training with representatives from the parliament’s Agrarian Issues Committee. These meetings were supported by the UNDP as part of their EU project – Consolidation of Parliamentary Democracy in Georgia.

From a trade perspective, the most important aspects of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, signed on 27 June 2014, including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), are the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures and the food safety standards and technical regulations required for access to European markets. Georgia’s export to the EU is still rather limited, and one possible cause for this deficiency, amongst others, is the limited capacity to comply with food safety regulations and standards.

This nationwide cluster mapping was conducted under EU Innovative Action for Private Sector Competitiveness in Georgia (EU IPSC), implemented by UNDP, FAO, UNIDO and IOM, and funded by EU. UNIDO’s component of the UNJP aims at strengthening the capacities of policy-makers and other stakeholders to identify and develop clusters.

The topic of circular labor migration has recently received increased attention within the objective of reducing unemployment in Georgia. Circular migration Schemes (CMS) are widely recognized policy tools for reducing illegal migration and facilitating the return of migrants to their countries of origin. The Georgian government’s increased interest and efforts to develop circular migration deals with EU member states serve, on the one hand, the long-term objective of addressing the high levels of unemployment, and, on the other hand, to reduce illegal, and stimulate legal, migration.