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Ekaterine Kardava is a Doctor of Law, a lawyer, a Jean Monnet Professor, and a researcher specialising in European integration. She is the author and co-author of more than thirty books, academic articles, research papers, and textbooks, and has developed innovative academic curricula on EU enlargement policy, Georgia’s European integration, the EU–Georgia Association Agreement, legal approximation, and EU law, which are taught at several universities in Georgia.
She has 29 years of professional experience combining public service, academia, and international consultancy. From 1996 to 2017, she served for 21 years in Georgia's public and state bodies, working on EU policy, legal approximation, and strategic planning. She has also been engaged in academic and scientific activities for over 20 years at leading Georgian universities.
At the international level, Professor Kardava served as Chief Legal Approximation Expert for an EU-funded programme supporting the implementation of Moldova’s Association Agreement. She represented the Parliament of Georgia on the working group that drafted the founding documents of the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly of the Eastern Partnership, in cooperation with the European Parliament. She held senior positions as Head of the European Integration Office of the Parliament of Georgia and as Head of the EU Law and International Agreements Division at the Administration of the Government of Georgia.
She was a member of the inter-agency working group on the EU–Georgia Visa Liberalisation Dialogue and the EU–Georgia Association Committee in Trade Affairs. Her professional experience also includes work as an expert at the NATO and EU Information Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and as a trainer at the Academy of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia.
Professor Kardava is the author and winner of five Jean Monnet projects under the Erasmus+ Programme, heads the Jean Monnet Chairs at Georgian State University, and has coordinated projects funded by major international foundations and development partners. She is the founder of the association “Labour and European Research Institute.”