European Public Law Organization
The European Public Law Organization (EPLO) was founded in 1995 and is an International Organization headquartered in Athens, Greece, whose specific mandate is the creation and dissemination of knowledge in the area of public law and the promotion of European values through public law throughout the world. To this effect, the EPLO organizes and supports technical cooperation, educational, scientific and research activities in Europe and worldwide.
The Organization’s Board of Directors comprises its 16 Member States (Greece, Italy, Cyprus, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Serbia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania), the European Commission, the Council of Europe and over 69 Universities and institutions from 35 countries. The EPLO’s Scientific Council is constituted by the European Group of Public Law (EGPL), which includes 255 leading European judges, jurists, law academics and practitioners in the field of public law. The EPLO has established 4 branch offices in Moldova, Romania, Cyprus and Armenia and 7 regional offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brussels, Nicaragua, Ukraine, Mexico, Iran and Slovakia. The Organization has 62 staff and a network of over 1500 scientific collaborators and experts.
The EPLO implements a large number of technical cooperation projects which assist governments and institutions around the world in promoting the rule of law, justice, public administration reform, regulatory and legislative reforms, human rights, democratization processes, law enforcement and sustainable development. Within this framework, the EPLO carries out such diverse actions as providing technical legal advice to national authorities, training for judges and civil servants, capacity and institution building directed at modernizing and upgrading public structures and institutions or aimed at the empowerment of civil society and local NGOs, research and raising public awareness. In 20 years of existence, the EPLO has implemented over 200 technical cooperation projects all over the world, including Europe, Mediterranean countries, Balkans, Caucasus and Former Soviet States, Middle East, Central and South Asia, Africa, as well as Latin America. The European Commission is the main donor of the EPLO’s technical cooperation projects.
The EPLO is also a nationally Mandated Body of the Hellenic Republic for implementing European Union Twinning projects. Such projects assist EU candidate countries and countries of the European Neighborhood Policy in the development of modern and efficient public administrations, with the structures, human resources and management skills needed to implement the acquis communautaire to the same standards as the Member States. To date, the EPLO has executed 36 Twinning Projects in numerous countries and sectors, including: justice and rule of law, public administration, regulatory and legislative reforms, customs and taxation, law enforcement, intellectual property rights, border management, environment and agriculture.