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On August 31-September 2 Middle East Technical University (Turkey) hosted closing events within the framework of Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Network Project “Linking to ‘Europe’ at the Periphery (LEAP). The Representatives of Ilia State university also participated in the above-mentioned events.

First part of the event was dedicated to the Postgraduate Conference on “Pluri-crisis of the European Integration?: Understanding the EU in Hard Times”. It aimed assessing and critically analysing the economic and political challenges on the way of European integration, as well as sharing the future visions of the European Integration process. A PhD student of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Mr. Gaga Tutarashvili presented the topic at the conference.

The second part of the event was dedicated to the closure conference of the project, where the researchers from the consortium member universities presented their research results, which referred to the attitudes of political elites and youth towards the European integration at the periphery, also the reasons behind the euroscepticism and the factors hampering the process of European integration. Dr. David Aprasidze, Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and researcher within LEAP project, presented a conference topic
From Dreaming to Dealing with Europe: How Political Elite in Georgia Frames and Contests the EU”. Besides, he facilitated a panel on the process of European integration seen through the eyes of young people.

Since 2019 two EU simulations, three Postgraduate conferences, three workshops were held within LEAP project, two issues of International Peer-reviewed academic journals were prepared and two books are in the process of being published.

The project partners were: Eskişehir Osmangazi University (Turkey), University of Pristina “Hasan Pristina” (Republic of Kosovo), Ilia State University (Georgia) National University of Ivan Franko in Lviv (Ukraine), National University of Political Science and Public Administration (Romania).

The project was coordinated by Middle East Technical University Centre for European Studies (Turkey).

2023