PASOS Policy Centres Directory 2007/8 published at PASOS annual think-tanks' conference

PASOS Public Policy Centres 2007/8 - A Directory of Think-Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia was published at the PASOS annual think-tanks' conference, which took place in Berlin on 1-3 November 2007. The publication, the second edition of the directory, highlights the mission and main areas of expertise of the PASOS members - 32 independent policy centres from 21 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It also outlines the main projects undertaken by the PASOS members in 2006-7, both joint projects and individual members' projects.

The 300-page publication also features an overview of a further 60 policy centres that were not PASOS members at the time of publication, but many of which have co-operated on projects with PASOS members.

The PASOS annual think-tanks' conference, held in Berlin on 1-3 November, included a public conference, entitled Common Foreign Policy Priorities towards an Open Society , attended by more than 140 participants from more than 30 countries - representatives from think-tanks, grantmakers and international foundations, as well as key decision-makers from EU governments and from EU institutions in Brussels.

The PASOS annual General Assembly took place on 2-3 November, and included the election to the PASOS Board of Directors of three new Board members, Zhidas Daskalovski, President of the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) , Macedonia, Nicu Popescu, Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations , and Olga Shumylo, Director, European Integration department, International Centre for Policy Studies (ICPS), Ukraine.

The elections were held o fill three positions, vacated upon the retirement from the Board of Adirian Ionescu, Programme Director of LGI/OSI (Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative of the Open Society Institute) , Jacek Kucharczyk, Director for Programming at the Institute of Public Affairs , Poland, and George Tarkhan-Mouravi, co-director of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Vita Terauda, Director of Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS, Latvia, continues as PASOS Chair, and Olga Shumylo was elected as the new Deputy Chair.