Epoka University organized the 6th International Conference on European Studies (ICES'17) titled the “Local, Regional and Global Governance”. The conference started on the 5th of November with the opening ceremony at Tirana Sheraton Hotel which hosted a panel of distinguished academic personalities and government representatives. The chair of the conference, Dr. Islam Jusufi and at the same time Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Epoka University, welcomed all participants in his opening speech and invited them to discuss their recent works on the three levels of governance. The opening ceremony was honored by Dr. Artemis Dralo, the Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania, who mainly highlighted the prospects and importance of regional integration. Mr. Florian Tahiri, the Deputy Mayor of Durres Municipality, followed with a speech on the role and challenges of local governance. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lisen Bashkurti delivered his speech on the relevance and importance of the topic of the conference. The conference keynote speaker, Prof. Dr. Klarita Gerxhani, concluded the opening ceremony with an overview of her researches on Economic Sociology focusing on formal and informal institutions and their relations with the morale of tax evasion.
The following sessions of the conference continued on 6th of November at the campus of Epoka University, where around forty researchers from Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia, Romania, Italy, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and United States shared their research on perspectives and challenges of local, regional and global governance.