  Bi-level optimisation problems have gained increasing interest in the field
of combinatorial optimisation in recent years. With this paper, we start the
runtime analysis of evolutionary algorithms for bi-level optimisation problems.
We examine two NP-hard problems, the generalised minimum spanning tree problem
(GMST), and the generalised travelling salesman problem (GTSP) in the context
of parameterised complexity.
  For the generalised minimum spanning tree problem, we analyse the two
approaches presented by Hu and Raidl (2012) with respect to the number of
clusters that distinguish each other by the chosen representation of possible
solutions. Our results show that a (1+1) EA working with the spanning nodes
representation is not a fixed-parameter evolutionary algorithm for the problem,
whereas the global structure representation enables to solve the problem in
fixed-parameter time. We present hard instances for each approach and show that
the two approaches are highly complementary by proving that they solve each
other's hard instances very efficiently.
  For the generalised travelling salesman problem, we analyse the problem with
respect to the number of clusters in the problem instance. Our results show
that a (1+1) EA working with the global structure representation is a
fixed-parameter evolutionary algorithm for the problem.
