The European Public Law Organization (EPLO) and the Global Network of Greek Lawyers working abroad (GNGL) in cooperation with the Institute for Studies in Competition Law and Policy (IMEDIPA) and the Gutenberg chair at the Centre d'expertise et de recherche administrative, École nationale d'administration (ENA), France, organized an international meeting on the topic "The Modern State: What reforms?". It took place on Friday, 27 July 2012, at the EPLO premises in Sounio (64th km, Athens-Sounio Ave.), Greece.
Chaired by Professor Spyridon Flogaitis, Director of the EPLO, Professor Ioannis Lianos, ENA/UCL/IMEDIPA, Mr. Max Brunner, Deputy Director of International Affaires at ENA and Dr. Georgios Dimitropoulos, NYU/EPLO, the workshop discussed a range of topics, including open government and transparency, the value of evidence-based policy and impact assessments, judicial reform, public administrative simplification, new public management, and the requisite change for the culture in public service.
This workshop provided a forum of discussion for experts from a range of interdisciplinary fields, ultimately stressing that a reform-minded culture needs to accompany reform if any progress is to be made. The workshop frequently praised the necessity for a holistic approach to reforms, including several aspects and fields of reform that must be introduced.
In the final session of the day, it was proposed by Ioannis Lianos to create a "Reform Observatory" for Greece in order to increase the visibility of implemented reforms in a peer monitoring way, as well as provide a channel for civil society, the private sector, and public sector, such as academia from Greece and abroad, to become more involved in and knowledgeable of the reform process currently taking place in Greece. Several of the participants and the participating institutions demonstrated the willingness to support and implement this observatory.
