Despite the fact that in recent years there has been asignificant effort to improve decision-making within the public sector by developing capacity in policy analysis in CEE, Central Asia and Caucasus countries, public policy analysis as the basis for evidence based policy is still in its initial stages. Many countries are still heavily reliant on donor assistance and there continue to be issues both on the demand side (how much governments genuinely want evidence-based policy advice) and on the supply side (e.g., skilled policy analysts within government bureaucracy, teaching institutions, think tanks).

In the light of the main conference theme, the Working Group has decided to tighten its focus and become a vehicle for discussions and debates around capacity challenges to professional policy analysis and concrete remedies for those challenges. Multi-level governance and inter-regional cooperation require as well as further the capacity for professional policy, e.g. in the area of EU cohesion policies, and thus provide fertile ground for further improvements on these issues.

Paper: Is EU energy regulation a platform for policy learning? Implementation of third legislative package: The case of national energy regulators
Author/Presenter:
Valentina Ivan, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

Paper: Evaluating procedural aspects of public governance: Case of Slovenia
Author(s):
Iztok Rakar, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Tina Sever, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Polonca Kovač, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Presenter(s):
Iztok Rakar, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia