Conference participation
Dr. Michal Natorski, Marie Curie Research Fellow at the CEFIR participated in the 14th Belgium-Dutch Political Science Conference (Politicologenetmaal) hosted by the Department of Political Science of Maastricht University and organized by the Political Science Associations of the Netherlands (NKPW) and Belgium (VPW). He presented a paper co-authored with Prof. Karolina Pomorska from the Maastricht University entitled "Trust and decision-making in times of crisis: the EU's response to the events in Ukraine".
Abstract: The study assesses whether the EU's response to Ukrainian crisis emerges from the trusting relationship between the key actors involved in shaping the Union's approach towards Ukraine and Russia: the member states (both in the European Council and the Council of the EU), the European External Action Service and the European Commission. To this aim, we check whether institutional ambiguities inherent in the official EU positions were motivated by trust or were a symptom of institutional compartmentalization and disbelief in the intentions of the others. The paper contrasts the views and interactions of different actors engaged in the EU decision-making process during three stages of Ukrainian crisis in the period 2012-2014. Similarly, we also analyse whether the relationships of trust are established only between specific actors within each of the studied institutions.