Blv. Carol I, nr. 19 (Corp I) Iași - 700517, România TEL +40.232.20.1318 | FAX: +40.232.2018.18, E-mail: [email protected] | www.cse.uaic.ro RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL Call: Europe as a global actor. The European Union and the Eastern Partnership Deadline: 28.05.2015 Information: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/1060- int-08-2015.html#tab2 Proposed research theme (title will be defined subsequently, after discussions in the network): “Resilience capacity, institutions and sustainable development in the Eastern EU`s peripherality (EU’s Eastern neighbourhood). A multidisciplinary approach: economic, socio- cultural and political” Relevance of proposed topic: 1. The perspective of EU's relations with its Eastern neighborhood depends not only on EU action at internal or external level by adapting policies to the problems of the East or by the geopolitical context of the region, but especially by the Eastern EU neighbourhood countries' ability to adapt to new circumstances, to integrate, at a large scale, in the economy and society, formal and informal European values (Europeanization process); 2. The existence of a rapidly changing external environment impose the increasing capacity of continuously adaptability of states/regions ; 3. The concept that best reflects the potential of these countries to strengthen their democratic systems, generate economic, societal, political transformations, which to support a sustainable development process and to adapt its economy and society to European standards (conditions of which depends the future of political stability in the region, the future of EU external relations in its Eastern neighborhood, and its role in the region, implicitly the prospects of EU as a global actor) is the concept of 'resilience'; 4. The capacity of resilience depends essentially on the formal and informal institutions that define a system and determines how efficiently the system manage the processes of economy, it is able to expand the sources of innovation and long-term development, to absorb shocks, to catching up the gaps, to overcome "path dependence"; 5. Although it has become a key concept in European policies, the concept of resilience is not enough developed in the theoretical and methodological literature, which are really needed; 6. EU's Eastern neighborhood is a little known area, current databases and existing studies not provide a real and integrated knowledge of economic and spatial phenomena. Correlation with call's objectives 1. Analysis of resilience capacity, of potential and vulnerabilities of the countries included in the Eastern Partnership to go through a process of Europeanization and to adapt to changing situations will provide a better understanding at European level of the region and its specific problems; EU can thus offer a better response by adjusting internal and external policies; 2. The research could generate adequate tools for economic and institutional restructuring policies in these countries, for more efficient and faster integration of Europeanization elements and placing on a path of sustainable development and convergence with the European model.