Laura Polverari of the European Policies Research Centre (EPRC) presented a paper on "Devolution and the governance of regional policy: Reflections on changes in accountability" at the 13th annual conference of the Italian Political Science Society (SISP) which took place in Rome in September.
Laura took part in a panel chaired by Professor Valeria Fargion, of Florence University, on "Regions in Europe". The panel also included presentations by Professors Michael Keating (European University Institute) and Luis Moreno (Centre of Human and Social Laura PolverariSciences, Madrid) and benefited from the expertise of Professor Simona Piattoni (University of Trento) in the role of discussant.
Professor John Bachtler participated in an international conference on 21-22 September organised by the World Bank and EUROREG at Warsaw University to discuss the geography of the economic crisis. The conference, which was opened by the Polish Minister for Regional Development, brought together academics and policymakers from throughout Central and Eastern Europe, as well as several Western European countries, and from the European Commission.
Professor Bachtler contributed a presentation on the regional dimensions of the crisis in western Europe as well as national and regional policy responses - one of a series of papers which demonstrated the highly differentiated impact of the crisis across Europe and the uncertainty over the longer term implications for economic development and regional restructuring.