Digital governance in the age of AI:
evolving policies, regulations, and practices

ABOUT TED / TRANS-EUROPEAN DIALOGUES

The idea of a European Administrative Space has been developed and used to describe a common core of shared values, principles and administrative capacities that is expected of and assumed for European administrations. The European Administrative Space is therefore a concept largely dealing with and concerned with administrative organizations and landscapes within the European Union. The discussion on the emergence and development of a European Administrative Space has been raising the idea of “convergence of a common European model? (Olsen 2003: 506). While in the meantime the idea of convergence has been refined and adapted to more diverse and differentiated perspectives (Trondal and Peters 2013), the core interest on questions of if and how to influence and shape European administrations, and based on what kind of reference values, has remained of core relevance. With the Eastern enlargement, the reference frame for the European Administrative Space could not only span the Western European countries but had to include also Central and (parts of) Eastern Europe. Along came special challenges and perspectives for the discussion of the European Administrative Space with established Western democratic, industrialized nations on the one side, and former communist countries that had to undertake democratic institution building on the other side.

As two main professional organizations in the field of Public Administration, EGPA and the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee) were natural addressees of such discussions. They have been committed to make their contribution to understanding, creating and institutionalizing the European Administrative Space. NISPAcee was established in direct response to the fall of the Soviet Union as networking platform for the newly created schools and programmes in Public Administration and to promote Public Administration teaching and research in the former communist countries (Gajdosova 2010: 51). The region covered by NISPAcee makes it unique among existing associations active exclusively in the CEE region and former Soviet states. EGPA’s mission has historically been to strengthen contacts and exchanges among European specialists in Public Administration, both scholars and practitioners. In line with this mission, its engagement and contribution would aim at activities and efforts to better connect a variety of European administrative traditions. With regard to the European Administrative Space, the challenge and task is to enable getting to know one’s European neighbours, their administrative systems and cultures. This would ultimately serve the Europe-wide discussion by better understanding each other’s history, institutions and values. The TEDs are jointly organised by two leading learned societies in Europe: EGPA and NISPAcee.

Further information on former TEDs  https://egpa.iias-iisa.org/TED-TRANS-EUROPEAN_DIALOGUES.php 

European Group for Public Administration EGPA  https://egpa.iias-iisa.org/ 

The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe NISPAcee https://www.nispa.org/