Academic Event Welcoming Speech: How Conflict Sensitive is EU Crisis Response?
By combining bottom–up perspectives with an institutional approach, this panel aim at increasing our understanding of how EU crisis responses function and are received on the ground in crisis areas. This entails exploring local agencies and perceptions in target countries without losing sight of the EU’s institutions and their expectations and ambitions. It also entails examining the whole cycle of crisis, from pre-crisis, through crisis, and into post-crisis phase. The conference is part of a H2020 project (EUNPACK) that analyses two gaps in EU crisis response: the intentions–implementation gap and the implementation-local reception/perceptions gap. The main hypothesis is that the severity of the two gaps is a decisive factor for the EU’s impacts on crisis management and thereby its ability to contribute more effectively to problem-solving on the ground. In this conference, both gaps will be addressed. Two panels will address issues of more conceptual character as well as case studies from some of target countries.