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Keywords: CSD; Center for the Study of Democracy; EU funds conditionality; EU financial assistance; Cooperation and Verification Mechanism; anti-corruption; good governance
The paper examines the impact on Bulgaria’s anti-corruption performance of the interrelation between EU policy conditionality and EU financial assistance, with a focus on post-accession developments. Although the EU never formally linked EU assistance to progress on anti-corruption, the disbursement of funds has tended to peak around critical deadlines for accession progress, e.g. the signing of the accession treaty in 2005, and the expiration of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’s (CVM) safeguard clauses in 2010. Both years also marked the lowest levels of corruption experienced by Bulgaria’s citizens. This suggests that the combined effect of EU anticorruption conditionality and development assistance on governance in Bulgaria was positive - but temporary. Moreover, the 2015 CVM monitoring report suggests that, eight years after EU accession, Bulgaria still faces three key governance challenges – combatting high-level corruption, building an institutional approach to anti-corruption, and judicial independence. In 2014, public experience of corruption reached its highest level since the first comparable research in 1998. The lack of anti-corruption conditionality or credible enforcement mechanisms since 2010 has seen Bulgaria backslide in the fight against corruption. The current EU approach and development assistance for anticorruption reforms have been insufficient to put Bulgaria on a virtuous circle path to open access order (or a good governance model), and has not been able to compensate for the lack of domestic political commitment to anticorruption reform. The paper’s findings suggest that the EU and Bulgarian anti-corruption stakeholders need to find new strategies for bringing about lasting governance change. This analysis is part of Work Package 8 of the EU FP7 ANTICORRP Project, comprising eight case study reports looking at the impact of EU conditionality and EU aid in countries in new EU member states, the European Neighbourhood and beyond. Other than Bulgaria, the case studies review Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Ghana, Kosovo, Tanzania, Tunisia and Ukraine. The integrated case study report is available at the official ANTICORRP webpage.
More...Keywords: CSD; Center for the Study of Democracy; drugs; Bulgaria; prison
This report provides a snapshot of the situation of drug users in Bulgaria. As it is aimed to serve as a basis for comparative study on policies and practice towards drug users, particularly in prisons, in Bulgaria and Norway, it presents the country’s context – general information on the country and its criminal justice system, policy and legislation on drugs explaining what are the perimeters of drug restriction and what are the national policies towards drug use. This information is illustrated with statistics on crime rates and drug crime in particular. The report also investigates how court looks upon the fact that the accused are using or addicted to narcotic substances within the criminal proceedings and specifically on the type and the term of the sentence. Finally, it looks upon the sanctions available for drug users and their situation once sentenced to imprisonment – what treatment, rehabilitation and harm reduction programmes are available in different prisons.
More...Keywords: Eastern Partnership; Europe; European Union; integration
The paper is post-conference report of the conference "The Eastern Partnership Conference Towards a European Community of Democracy, Prosperity and a Stronger Civil Society” held by the Polish Institute of International Affairs, Centre for Eastern Studies, the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland and the European External Action Service on 29 September 2011.The aim of the conference was to develop recommendations for the inclusion of civil society activities in the Eastern Partnership. Civil society has been involved in the Eastern Partnership initiative since November 2009, when the EaP Civil Society Forum was launched to support EaP goals. After two years of EaP development, the Civil Society Forum is recognized by most of the stakeholders as an important and valuable actor that regularly provides expert opinion, independent monitoring and policy proposals to government officials and EU institutions. The situation and democratic processes in the EaP region still prove to be volatile and unstable, and therefore there is the need to further strengthen Europe’s ties with the countries of the region and to develop concrete mechanisms of cooperation between official structures and civil society on securing regional stability.
More...Keywords: Public law; constitution; legislation; legal framework; Armed Forces; BiH; military efficiency; military discipline; EU legislation; human rights; evaluation;
In this article, the legal framework for the disciplinary repression within the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina is subjected to criticism, using dogmatic, historical, sociological, philosophical and comparative methods of the legal science. Doubts which concerns the legal nature of this institution, framing it within administrative, criminal and labor law, are resolved in the context of a professional military organization, in favour of the latest. Starting from the prevailing labour nature of military discipline, it was concluded that this framework does not provide minimum procedural guarantees under Articles 5, 6 and 13 of the (European) Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and detected the substantial and technical shortcomings that compromise the legal certainty. Suggested solutions to overcome the present situation, in terms of reform of the legal framework, comprise of legislation that would regulate this issue thoroughly, institutional guarantees of independence and impartiality of the Armed Force's Legal Service and establishment of the military justice core, in order to protect the human rights of members of the Armed Forces in a way that does not compromise military efficiency.
More...Keywords: Preševo; Bujanovac; Albanians in Macedonia; Albanians in Montenegro; Kosovo-conflict;
The discussions summarized in this report took place on December 1 and 2, 2000, in the Vougliameni suburb of Athens, Greece, at a gathering of senior political leaders from Southeast Europe. The Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) convened the meeting, in an informal and neutral setting, to help these leaders in their mutual search for solutions to the bitter aftermath of ethnic strife and warfare that devastated parts of their region during the 1990s, and to encourage them to exchange ideas about how to prevent continuing interethnic rivalries from breaking out in renewed violence. Behind the prosaic title of the Athens discussions —“Albanians as Majorities and Minorities: A Regional Dialogue”— lie some of the most explosive issues of the day: the future of the status of Kosovo; relations between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians in Kosovo and between Serbs and Albanians in Serbia proper; the survival of the Yugoslav Federation, the territorial integrity of Serbia and Macedonia; and the ebb and flow of influence between Albania and Albanians living outside its borders. The outcomes of these questions will affect the entire region, including even Greece and Italy and, indeed, the international community itself, for decades to come.
More...Keywords: North Macedonia; security sector reform; state independence; post-communist transition; institutional changes; ethnic conflict; democracy; EU integration; NATO integration; army; military policy; Intelligence Agency;
This paper looks at the general political and security sector context in the last two decades since Macedonian independence, and traces the major trends and events that shaped the political developments and progress with security sector reforms in post-communist Macedonia. For the purpose of this paper, the analysis of the post-communist transition period is divided in three parts, corresponding to the three periods on which we divided the context since 1991, for the sake of greater clarity and analytical coherence. For each of these three periods, we conducted an analysis of major political developments as well as institutional change. Based on this analysis, each period is qualified as characterised by a specific nature, whether post-authoritarian, conflict, postconflict, or integrationist. In the Annex attached to this paper, a short overview of the key political actors and their role in the security sector reforms and the political transition in Macedonia is offered. The first period analyzed is the period from the declaration of independence from Yugoslavia, in 1991 until the ethnic conflict in 2001. These years mark the first decade of independent statehood and democratic politics in Macedonia. The second period stretches from the ethnic conflict in 2001 until the NATO Summit in Bucharest in early 2008. The 2001 conflict had a profound impact on the political and security context in Macedonia. It produced inter-ethnic violence and culminated in a far-reaching reform of the constitutional and institutional set-up of Macedonian democracy.
More...Keywords: Kosovo administration; Kosovo constitution;
Five years into the international administration of Kosovo, two violent days in March 2004 have sorely tested the international commitment to a multiethnic Kosovo. Directed against Kosovo’s minorities and against the international mission itself, the violence has left many wondering whether UNMIK has the capacity to achieve its objectives in the face of open resistance.This is a dangerous moment for international policy in the region. The urgent priority for the Kosovo mission and the incoming SRSG is to reaffirm the international commitment to multiethnic society, at both the diplomatic and the practical level.This paper argues that the policies needed in response to the March riots must be based on the practical needs of Serbs living in Kosovo today. The paper finds that the current reality of Kosovo Serbs differs from the common perception in important ways. There are still nearly 130,000 Serbs living in Kosovo today, representing two-thirds of the pre-war Serb population. Of these, two-thirds (75,000) are living south of the River Ibar in Albanian-majority areas. Almost all of the urban Serbs have left, with North Mitrovica now the last remaining urban outpost. However, most of the rural Serbs have never left their homes. The reality of Kosovo Serbs today is small communities of subsistence farmers scattered widely across Kosovo.
More...Keywords: UNMIBH; UN in Bosnia-Hercegovina; vetting procedure; Bosnian police; High Representative;
Between 1996 and 2002, UNMIBH ran a large police mission in Bosnia, the International Police Task Force (IPTF). One of the tasks it set itself was to rid the Bosnian police forces of inappropriate personnel through an exhaustive vetting procedure. Altogether, the UN assessed some 18,000 police officers and declared 793 unfit to exercise police powers. || These individuals were banned from serving as police for life – a very severe sanction. Yet the UN failed to offer the most basic procedural safeguards, which the UN Secretary-General himself has noted is the difference between legitimate vetting and “wholesale purges”. The banned police officers were given no opportunity to respond to the evidence against them. Some were not even told the reason for their disqualification. Among the 793, there are at least 150 cases that IPTF could not finalise during its mandate, and whose fate was simply left hanging. Some of these cases clearly involve serious injustice. || At the centre of this report is an exchange of letters between the High Representative in Bosnia and the UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations in New York. It shows that international officials have been aware for many years that mistakes were made. According to notes prepared by the High Representative’s Office (OHR), the two organisations concluded in December 2003 that there were “cases where errors of law or errors of fact might have occurred.” An OHR summary of a further meeting in July 2004 noted again that “the UN representatives acknowledged that some cases were problematic.” But nothing was done to resolve the problems. The only action on which the two institutions could agree was intimidating the Bosnian courts and authorities into doing nothing.
More...Keywords: women in Turkey; feminism in Turkey; secular Turkey; islamic Turkey; Kemalist Turkey;
There are some who fear that Turkey may be turning its back on its secular traditions. Some of the loudest voices come from Kemalist women, who insist that the rise of ‘political Islam’ represents an acute threat to the rights and freedoms of Turkish women. There have even been calls for restrictions to Turkish democracy, to protect women’s rights. Yet such an ‘authoritarian feminism’ is out of touch with the reality of contemporary Turkey and the achievements of recent years. || Turkey has a long road ahead of it in narrowing its gender gap. In a recent international study, Turkey ranked an embarrassing 105th of 115 countries – far behind the worst-ranking EU member. Improving gender equality will involve tackling a series of deeply entrenched problems, from improving access to education in rural regions to removing the institutional and social barriers to women’s participation in the workforce. Elections in July this year will test the commitment of Turkey’s political parties to increasing the number of women in parliament. || It is these issues which deserve to be at the centre of the current political debate in Turkey. And it is only the maturing and further development of Turkish democracy that holds out the promise of a genuine liberation of Turkish women.
More...Keywords: Serbian Democracy; Serbian transformnation; Aleksandar Vucic; Greater Serbia; territory exchange;
It is remarkable how little change there has been in the key personnel in Serbian politics since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. It is not surprising, therefore, that the old nationalist idea of redrawing borders on the basis of ethnicity has continued to be so prominent. What is surprising is the recent success that Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic has had in repackaging this old idea as progressive, non-conventional, out-of-the-box thinking. Why not, the siren song goes (again), adjust some borders along ethnic lines, as long as the process is negotiated peacefully and leads to reconciliation? || In addition, to remain credible in Pristina, European countries should take two long overdue steps: to lift the visa requirement for Kosovo citizens, as the European Commission and the European Parliament have recommended; and to support Kosovo in applying and joining the Council of Europe, with protection of minorities in Kosovo a key requirement of post-accession monitoring. || The EU also needs to send a strong signal to countries and leaders who reach out to their neighbours and minorities and resolve difficult issues in a true spirit of reconciliation. The strongest signal would be to begin accession talks with North Macedonia without delay in summer 2019.
More...Keywords: Centre for Advanced Study Sofia Newsletter
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More...Keywords: Democratic institutions; Transnistria conflict; capacity of administration; juridical system; economic reforms; foreign trade; social development; migration; border control;
QUARTERLY REPORT FOR MONITORING THE PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTING THE EU-MOLDOVA ACTION PLAN IN APRIL-JUNE 2013. // The quarterly report EUROMONITOR is based on 28 areas for which it shows the developments during the monitored period, assesses the impact of the action taken, and identifies major problems. The presentation of the initial situation (as of 2005) and of the current situation (as of 2012) is made on the basis of the conclusions made for the evaluation report covering the progress achieved in the period of 2005-2012, and it is focused on areas included into the report. The quarterly progress for 2013 has also been assessed along the areas included into the report.
More...Children are explicitly targeted by social policy in Belarus, as child-related benefits constitute a major part of the public direct transfers. Despite this, households with children are among the social groups most vulnerable to the risk of absolute poverty and multidimensional poverty in Belarus. This paper seeks to inform the understanding of the distributional impact of taxes and public spending on children in Belarus. The analysis reveals that current child benefits system is geared towards supporting the families with children aged 0-2, which leads to crucial gaps and shortfalls in coverage of the most vulnerable groups: households with three or more children, single-parent households, and children aged 6-9. Besides, households with children often bear a heavier-than-average tax burden as compared to the general public. Therefore, the design of the social assistance to the households with children needs improvement, in particular, by means of development of targeted social assistance and introduction of vulnerable group-specific benefits for, inter alia, households with three or more children, and single-parent households.
More...Keywords: Transnistria-conflict;
This study aims to evaluate the discussions on the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict in 2016. The analysis addresses, in particular, the events related to the meeting of 2-3 June 2016 in Berlin in the format "5 + 2" and the reaction of the participants and Moldovan civil society compared to the results obtained. The issue of the Transnistrian conflict is an important topic on which the modernization process of the state of the Republic of Moldova depends very much. However, despite some measures to relaunch the negotiations in the "5 + 2" format, we find an attitude of distrust on the part of some representatives of the state but also of the civil society towards the negotiation process. Considering the mentioned problems, we notice a concern of the Moldovan society towards the evolution of the negotiations and the results that could be obtained. This state of affairs highlights the risks of resolving the Transnistrian conflict for the modernization and democratization of the state of the Republic of Moldova. The principle of "red lines" launched by civil society conveys the idea of pressure on the Moldovan authorities in the "5 + 2" format to make them make unilateral concessions and incompatible with the rules and principles of international law could seriously harm the future status of the region Transnistrian within the Republic of Moldova.
More...Keywords: Western Balkans; media; democratization; international assistance; cross-national comparison;
This is the concluding report of a project aiming to enhance the knowledge and understanding of conditions and factors that influence the creation of sustainable and functional media institutions in the democratizing countries of the Western Balkans, especially in contexts where there is a strong presence of international assistance programs and conditionality mechanisms. The project covers four countries that emerged from former federal Yugoslavia, i.e. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia, as well as a fifth country, Albania. This report summarizes and compares the country and subject-matter-specific contributions with the aim of exploring the nexus between the democratic transformation of the media and international media assistance as constrained by the local political conditions. Although the countries of the Western Balkans share significant social, political, historical and economic traits, the region’s recent trajectory has not been very coherent. Since the collapse of socialism in the 1990s, all five countries are undergoing a difficult transition to democracy and a free market economy. They have in common a post-authoritarian legacy, relatively small territories and weak economies. However, these similarities should not obstruct the recognition of important differences in political traditions, local cultures and ethnic composition of the population throughout the region. In the past, political traditions of statehood differed significantly, characterised by periods of bloom and decline as well as external influences, notably from the Ottomans and the Austrian empire. The region’s conflict-ridden history has inspired the term Balkanization, which is widely used to describe a process of geopolitical fragmentation. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia and war with the Serbian hegemon, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo were founded as modern states. Macedonia was also affected by a limited conflict between its two majority peoples – Macedonians and Albanians. NATO undertook extensive military interventions against Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995, and in Kosovo and Serbia in 1999. Albania alone went through a peaceful transition albeit the country took in many war refugees, mainly from Kosovo. All of the countries in the focus of this project are multi-ethnic but their composition varies to a significant degree. In Albania and Kosovo, Albanians are by far the majority people but there is a significant Serb minority in the latter. Serbia’s dominant majority are Serbs (83 percent of the population). In contrast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is the home of three constituent peoples (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats) and in Macedonia ethnic Macedonians and Albanians coexist, among others. Today, out of these five Western Balkan countries two are in the antechamber of the European Union (EU). For some time already Macedonia and, recently, Serbia have had candidate status but the pre-accession negotiations are open-ended. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania are still potential candidate countries, and thus further away from their ultimate aim to accede to the EU. Striving for EU membership requires from these Western Balkan countries to comply with its democratic and market economy standards (the so-called ‘Copenhagen Criteria’). Today EU conditionality is a major driver of reforms in the region.
More...Keywords: criminology; collective trauma; intragenerational transmission; radicalisation studies;
In this paper, we attempt to build upon existing theoretical and empirical knowledge stemming from criminology, conflict and peace studies, and radicalisation/extremism studies, among others, in order to explore the (potential) role of historical trauma in (collective/group) radicalisation. Historical trauma is objective, altered, or imagined trauma that occurred in the (more or less distant) past and is shared by a group of people (i.e., is one of the markers of their group identity across generations). Radicalisation refers to a process of acquiring more and more extreme political, religious, or social ideologies, and becoming more prone to endorsing any form of (violent) extreme behaviour to achieve one’s goals. The intergenerational transmission of collective trauma can arguably have a significant role in the radicalisation of future generations who consider themselves historically victimized by “the Other”. The aim of this paper is to explore how the intergenerational transmission of collective trauma may contribute to (group) radicalisation. The paper, therefore, introduces a (thus far relatively neglected) intergenerational perspective in radicalisation studies. In order to do so, we first briefly address the existing knowledge on individual and collective radicalisation. Thereafter, we discuss individual and collective trauma and describe their consequences and manifestations. Then, we turn the attention to scholarship on the intergenerational transmission of the legacies of political violence, focusing in particular on the intergenerational transmission of collective trauma, i.e., historical trauma. The final section synthesizes our arguments and makes a couple of (tentative) claims on how historical trauma can potentially contribute to the radicalisation of present and future generations. This paper does not present conclusive evidence nor policy recommendations. Its main aim is to open new doors for further discussions and the future exploration of (violent) radicalisation, trauma, and their intergenerational consequences.
More...Keywords: Leisure time of the youth; Use of internet; Life values; Social distance; Education; employment; Youth and politics;
The project “Young people in Montenegro – social ornament or social capital?” seeks to contribute to the empowerment of young people in Montenegro and to their active participation in the promotion of democratic values that also lie at the foundation of the European Union. More specifically, the objective of this project is to raise the awareness of the public and interested parties about the issues, problems and the prospects of young people in Montenegro, as well as to strengthen the capacities of young people for active participation in social and political processes. The importance of this project is reflected in the fact that it provides a comprehensive insight into one of the most marginalised social groups in the Montenegrin society – a group that is often talked about, but whose needs, opinions, views and potential have never been adequately recognised or assessed. Consequently, the young people lack the tools to confront the challenge of carving a place for themselves in the society and exerting influence on the current affairs.
More...Keywords: poverty in Moldova;
This report examines the role of civil society and private sector in the Republic of Moldova in achieving the Millennium Development Goal 1 “Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” (MDG 1). In the study participated in the civil society and the private sector and relevant government institutions and relevant international organizations.
More...The Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities Skopje, in conjunction with the Visegrad Fund and the Balkan Trust for Democracy-The German Marshall Fund of the United States, is proud to present the proceedings from the Avenues of Cooperation conference, which was dedicated to finding a solution to the cultural conflict between the Macedonian and the Bulgarian state related to their respective nation-building narratives which has caused a stalemate in the Union’s enlargement process blocking the next step of North Macedonia’s accession to the European Union. The “Avenues of Cooperation Proceedings” present in depth analyses on these issues and include contributions from: Gábor Egry, Spasimir Domaradzki, Costas Douzinas, Marta Szpala, Michal Vit, Ljupcho Petkovski, Stefan Detchev, and Katerina Kolozova. Through various historical (with an emphasis on exploring the past experiences and conflicts/conflict resolutions of other Visegrad countries), cultural, and political analyses, based largely on the contributors’ own backgrounds, new, practical and concrete ways of moving forward past the deadlock between Macedonia and Bulgaria are presented from multiple perspectives all coalescing around a shared goal. Thus, these proceedings offer solutions and recommendations to long standing cultural, national, historical and political disputes between the two nations with the aim of bettering relations, increasing cooperation, and, crucially, unblocking the EU enlargement process and creating models that would allow for the prevention of any such situations happening again in the future.
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