An official visit of the Hellenic Parliament Research Service to the European Parliament Research Service (EPRS) took place on 28-29 June 2017. I was very fortunate to be part of this historic mission, as it represented the first official visit of our service to a foreign parliament in 30 years!
The 3 members of our delegation were:
- Prof. Emeritus Nikolaos Skandamis, member of the Scientific Council (head of delegation)
- Dr. Fotios Fitsilis, Head of Scientific Documentation and Supervision Department
- Mr. Andreas Koundouros, Head of European Studies Department.
Our team prepared a twin set of presentations. First, an overview of the operations of the Scientific Service of the Hellenic Parliament was given, which included the work of the Scientific Council, the legal screening activities of our service and a detailed presentation of ongoing and past scientific documentation and parliamentary research activities. On the second day, our team discussed the current economic situation in Greece and the challenges it poses for our parliament. We presented the institutional features of the crisis and its impact on the parliamentary life.
In exchange, our colleagues from the EPRS presented various aspects of their operations, which included among others the following:
- Regulatory Impact Assessment and European Added Value
- Scientific Foresight at the EPRS
- Presentation of the Library and the publishing process papers
- Communication tools
- Introduction of Akoma Ntoso in the legislative work of the EP
- Work of the Legal Service and legal screening of proposals
Overall, it was a particularly rich experience, with added value for our service.
In front of the European Parliament (left to right: Dr. Fotios Fitsilis, Mr. Andreas Koundouros, Ms. Annamaria Forgacs, Prof. emeritus Nikolaos Skandamis
EPRS Director-General Mr. Anthony Teasdale (middle left) with Mr. Eschel Claus Alpermann and Ms. Annamaria Forgacs receiving the Greek delegation
During a presentation in the Library
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