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During the past decade organised crime threats have taken on an increasing importance and have become central to the national and EU policy debates on domestic security and citizen safety. The dynamics of globalisation combined with the dismantlement of the Iron Curtain in the heart of Europe led to growing cross-border flows of people, goods, money and information. On the other hand East European transition was marked from its start by a fast rise of criminality, which soon translated into unprecedented levels of transnational organised crime across Europe. Further to that the growing complexity of financial markets created opportunities for white collar criminals, adding some hitherto unknown criminal phenomena.
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The policy brief presents the results of a survey of the public trust in the police and the courts in Bulgaria, the public perceptions of the level of corruption in these institutions and the fear of crime in the Bulgarian society. Of all the EU member states, Bulgaria is the country whose citizens are the least satisfied with the performance of the main government institutions. Trust in the main institutions concerned with criminal justice – the police and courts, is low and has remained practically unchanged over the last decade. At the end of 2010, a positive evaluation of police performance was given by less than half of the country’s adult population and barely one in five gave a favorable opinion of the courts. The low public trust in the courts and police can also be accounted for by the high level of corruption in these institutions. It is also conducive to public attitudes of insecurity and the society begins to perceive crime as an inherent part of reality rather than a problem that can actually be addressed. A state’s penal policy can only produce results if sufficient attention is paid to trust, legitimacy, and security. It is therefore recommended to adopt a system of indicators for the assessment of public trust in criminal justice.
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The economic crisis and the increased threats from terrorism, organised crime and illegal migration have brought to light the issue of efficient and effective management of the external borders of the European Union. For Bulgaria it has become even more important with regard to its upcoming accession to the Schengen area.
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In recent decades the Italian authorities implemented a number of measures and policies as a direct response to the threat of organized crime. These new measures were intended to expand the scope and the number of law enforcement and judicial instruments and were an attempt to complement the conventional approaches, which were no longer effective in light of the persisting mafia influence against public institutions. This is why the Italian experience is specifically valuable for countries like Bulgaria, which are vulnerable to corruption and organized crime.
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Since the early 1990s the duty-free shops along Bulgaria’s land-border crossings were used as a channel for illegal import of excise goods (cigarettes, alcohol and petrol). With the increase of excise and VAT taxes in the second-half of the 1990s, the risk of alcohol and cigarettes smuggling increased rapidly. The duty-free shops gradually evolved into one of the main channels for the smuggling of cigarettes, alcohol, and fuel. At that period, duty free operators existed without a legal regulation but only with a licensing permit from the Minister of Finance. The smuggling was tacitly tolerated from the highest political level.
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Confiscation of proceeds from illegal activities is a widely applied mechanism in combating organized crime. The introduction and application of this mechanism is defined in several international and European acts, and is motivated by the need to restore social justice. Both the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Convention against Corruption address the disposal of confiscated assets and recommend its use primarily for compensating the victims of crime. A number of European countries have implemented respective measures and mechanisms like: distribution schemes for compensation of victims of crime, financing of programs for fight against drug use, social re-use of confiscated property.
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The data on the dynamics of corruption used in the current report are the result of the Corruption Monitoring System (CMS), designed and developed by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) and Vitosha Research. CMS combines significant research and powerful anticorruption advocacy potential. The purpose of CMS is to measure the actual level and trends in the spread of corruption in the country, as well as to identify related public attitudes and expectations. After an improvement in 2010, the level of administrative corruption among the population increased in 2011 – 2012, still placing the country in the group of EU Member States experiencing high levels of corruption. The average monthly number of corruption transactions in 2011 was approximately 150,000. In 2011, a quarter of all citizens who dealt with the state administration had to resort to some kind of irregular payment to receive administrative services. This indicates that corruption is a systemic problem of the Bulgarian society.
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The policy brief makes an overview of the levels of corruption and the impact of corruption on the societal sectors. In 2014, the Corruption Monitoring System has recorded the highest levels of involvement of the Bulgarian population in corruption transactions in the last 15 years. In the past year Bulgarians have conceded to being involved on average in roughly 158 thousand corruption transactions monthly. Most corruption transactions have been initiated by the administration through exerting corruption pressure on those seeking public services. The public’s susceptibility to corruption in 2014 is similar to 1999 despite the increase of intolerance to corrupt behaviour. In the business sector corruption’s effectiveness for solving problems has grown in 2014. Most companies do not trust public organisations and do not consider they are treated equally in courts.
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The Crimean crisis and the continuing instability in Eastern Ukraine have turned into a rude wake up call for Europe’s energy security vulnerabilities. Russia has demonstrated its capacity to yield political and economic influence on the countries in the CEE and the Black Sea regions by leveraging its dominant position on their energy markets. Russia has pressured governments to support its flagship project, South Stream, at the expense of the countries’ long-term strategy to diversify their natural gas supply and in defiance of EU’s strategy for building a liberalised common market. Since the beginning of the crisis the EU and NATO have scrambled for finding the right measures to a balanced response to Russia’s growing assertiveness, while striving to alleviate the most acute energy security risks for their members.
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In countries with endemic corruption, integrity reforms can only be successful if anti-corruption institutions succeed in tackling internal corruption challenges. A sharp decline of corruption in law enforcement would provide society with the necessary tools to pursue tangible change. The experience of established democracies is that a successful transformation depends not simply on individual measures but rather on the introduction of sets of effective anti-corruption measures across the entire public administration. Corruption among lawenforcement officers has been viewed with an increasing concern by the authorities and the public in many European states. As a result, while no common approach has ever been tested with respect to the judiciary, elected politicians or the customs, countering police corruption has become an all-European effort. During the last decade, several European countries developed multi-institutional systems for police integrity. On EU level, platforms like the European Partners against Corruption (EPAC) were introduced, enabling specialised anti-corruption institutions to cooperate and share experience. In addition, Europol, Interpol and the UN developed and shared the blueprints of common standards and good practices in preventing police corruption.
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Transparency of media ownership and media pluralism are directly related to fundamental constitutional principles, rights and freedoms such as independence and freedom of the media, freedom of expression, pluralism of opinions and citizens’ right to information. Consistent application of these democratic principles is required to prevent the vicious practice of using the media as an instrument for state capture. The current publication makes a review of the legal framework for disclosing ownership of the media.
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The EU legal framework requires that all Members States criminalise the financing of organised crime. According to the provisions of Article 2 (a) of the Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised crime ‘’Each Member State shall take the necessary measures to ensure that one or both of the following types of conduct related to a criminal organisation are regarded as offences: (a) conduct by any person who, with intent and with knowledge of either the aim and general activity of the criminal organisation or its intention to commit the offences in question, actively takes part in the organisation’s criminal activities, including the provision of information or material means, the recruitment of new members and all forms of financing of its activities, knowing that such participation will contribute to the achievement of the organisation’s criminal activities.” Nevertheless, criminal justice authorities in Members States rarely make use of these provisions.
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The EU has played an influential role on Member States and their integration policies, albeit to varying degrees. EU standards have been vital in moving Member States towards the formulation of national integration strategies, which have taken into account the Common Basic Principles of Immigrant Integration and the Zaragoza indicators. The process of developing migration and integration management institutions and the correspondent data collection systems has become more apparent under the influence of EU standards and regulations in all ten Member States. The Zaragoza set of indicators in migrant integration are only a minimum list of indicators and States are encouraged to collect and analyse further data according to their specific composition of the migrant population and the legal and policy framework. The use of indicators gives policy actors a lasting perspective and evidence base for policy planning. The availability of these indicators is therefore a starting-point for more shared learning across the EU and evidence based policy making, implementation and monitoring. The setting up of national integration indicators can be seen as a positive development in Austria, Belgium and soon Italy as it helps provide an evidence base for policy monitoring as well as policy making in these countries.
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The police are the most trusted institution in Macedonia with almost 60% of the respondents stating that they mostly or completely trust it. Still, nearly one-quarter of the population do not trust the police at all. In general, women tend to trust them more than men, whereas males are the demographic group with least confidence in this institution. Citizens are also divided among the ethnic lines. Ethnic Macedonians generally express more positive views than ethnic Albanians, particularly concerning the question of trust. Moreover, the level of trust is the highest among the public sector employees, followed by pensioners and those working in the private sector. The students’ and unemployed citizens’ level of trust is much lower. Macedonian citizens have a positive perception of police officers, describing them mainly using positive words/adjectives, and with female police officers scoring slightly better. However, negative perceptions prevail in many aspects of the work of the police. For instance, the most popular belief about the employment process within the police is that candidates are selected via political connections or by pulling strings with relatives or friends. Moreover, the police force is rather seen as operating as means for protection of the interests or particular groups than as a service of the citizens. In line with this finding, more than half of the citizens believe that politicians do have an influence on the operating work of the police force. Apart from the police, only education and healthcare received positive trust assessments by more than half of the respondents, while least trusted institutions are the judiciary, the Anti-corruption Agency, the prosecutors’ offices and the Parliament. Moreover, all institutions except non-governmental organisations are considered by more than half of the respondents to have widespread corruption. The most widespread corruption is perceived to be found in the judiciary, followed by the prosecutors’ offices, commercial inspectorates and the customs. Compared to other institutions, the police is positioned somewhere in the middle. Breaking down the results to specific police units, the traffic police is considered to be the most corrupt, followed by the Minister’s closest associates and the border police. The least corrupt are believed to be police officers responsible for public law and order. On a positive note, it is encouraging to see that 76% of the Macedonian citizens would be willing to report a case of corruption in the police (being asked for a bribe), even if they were required to reveal their personal data. This is in line with the popular belief that motivating citizens to report corrupt police officers is the most necessary action for preventing corruption. Other suggested measures are: increasing the salaries of police officers, strict sanctioning of offenders and more frequent punishing of corrupt police officials. The internal control unit, responsible for addressing corruption within the police, is not the citizens’ first choice for reporting a case. Most of the citizens would report it to the local police station or the chief of the station. Similarly, the institution that should be the first to fight corruption in the police force is considered to be the police force itself through the control of the police, by the minister of interior, or the police officers themselves. On the other side, citizens mainly agreed that the primary role of the NGOs in the fight against corruption should be collaborating with the state.
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Six out of ten citizens of Montenegro trust the police. This suggests that police, despite numerous challenges, has citizens on its side as significant impetus to its work. In a nutshell, these opinions include, apart from the high level of public trust, largely positive associations about typical policemen and policewomen. This trust score in police is in contradiction with other survey results, drawing a somewhat complex picture of people’s opinion of the police. Citizens think that corruption in this institution is relatively widespread; that the police predominantly serve particular interests, and that recruitment is not merit-based. Serbs tend to trust the police less and perceive it as particularly alienated. Less than half of the respondents (42%) who declared themselves as ethnic Serbs said that they trust the police highly or completely. This lack of trust is supported by other answers as well: only 21% of the respondents who declared themselves as Serbs stated that the police serve the citizens, while all of 80% said that politicians influence police work completely or to a large extent. By contrast, Albanians, Croats and Bosniaks/Muslims tend to have an above-average positive perception of specific aspects of the police. Although citizens believe that corruption within the police is widespread, they are not eager to report it. The striking majority of over 73% of the respondents said that they would not report corruption within the police even if they were not asked to disclose their personal data. The key trends remain steady in comparison with the survey conducted in 2015. This suggests that relatively turbulent developments and opposition protests in the capital city of Podgorica from October 2015, which resulted in excessive use of force by a number of police officers, have not significantly affected the general perception of the police. Also – like in 2015 – trust in the police and perception of corruption are not positively correlated, indicating the need for further research of key determinants of public trust in institutions. Possible explanations can be associated with the predominant political culture, which is not highly participatory and civic-oriented but is, instead, still parochial and submissive to a significant extent, meaning that a significant portion of population is not eager to question the authorities regardless of their performance. The major novelty of this year’s survey was its focus on women in the police force. Although policewomen were largely assigned positive attributes, some general stereotypes about women appear in this survey as well. Beauty, looks and charm are among the most frequent first associations when it comes to policewomen, while, when asked to describe a typical policeman, only 1% of the respondents listed beauty, looks and charm as their first answer. Also, not a single respondent claimed that a typical male police officer is not suited for the job, while more than 5% of the respondents gave precisely this answer as their first description of women in the police force.
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Citizens of the Western Balkans have a high level of trust and confidence in the education system, the health system and the police. However, even in the case of institutions they trust most – such as the police, trusted on average by 58% of the population – many believe that they cannot be relied on. Representative bodies (the Parliament), the judiciary, the prosecutors’ offices and the media are trusted the least. In comparison with the survey conducted in 2015, trust in most key institutions has increased. The respondents see the average policewoman first as polite and good looking, and only then as a professional ready to perform her job. Male members of the police force are associated primarily with their professional engagement – protection of citizens, someone who is strong and trustworthy – and to some extent with behaviour and method of communication, whereas assessments concerning their physical appearance are completely absent. Citizens of the Western Balkans believe that the dominant mode of employment in the police is through friends and relatives, political affiliation, or by giving bribes. Many of them also believe that police officers operate mainly to protect the interests of the government, political parties and police officials, and only then those of the citizens. Similarly, they believe that politicians have a strong influence on the operational decision-making in the police. Although more than half the citizens have confidence in the police, this institution is simultaneously also considered deeply corrupt. This suggests that corruption is percieved as something that is acceptable and normal. Awareness of corruption in the police thus persists together with a sense of trust, without these two perceptions excluding each other. Border and traffic police are believed to be the most corrupt, together with the close (political) associates of ministers of interior affairs. Special police units are viewed as least vulnerable to corruption. Citizens are divided in their opinions as to whether they would or would not report corruption, and those who would do it would first contact the local police station or its chief. Citizens believe that repressive measures would be most effective for preventing corruption. They also believe that the Government, the Minister of Interior Affairs and the internal police control should be the first to address this problem. Respondents recognise civil society as actors in the fight against corruption, but mostly as direct actors and associates of the state in this task. Only then do they recognise their contribution through research, documentation and protection of victims of corruption.
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In 2017, the police was the most trusted institution in Kosovo. The trends have shown that the public trust in the Kosovo Police in 2017 has increased by 10 percent in comparison to the levels noted in 2015 and 2016, making it the institution the respondents experienced in the most positive light. It is worth mentioning that the survey was conducted soon after the early parliamentary elections in Kosovo, which could have impacted the results as regards the police to a certain extent. Positive attitudes of the respondents towards the police have been demonstrated with respect to the perception of police officers, both male and female. The public perceives police officers mainly as kind, cultured, decent and trustful people who work in compliance with the country’s laws and regulations. However, the respondents have shared quite different views regarding the selection of candidates and the employment process within the police. Although the majority believes that an open and public competition precedes employment, they also see political connections, pulling strings and bribery as issues that seemingly still present major challenges to a fair and merit-based recruitment process. Despite the results indicating that the majority of respondents believe that the Kosovo Police serves the citizens the most, there is still serious concern that the police also serves the interests of the Government and the political parties in Kosovo. Moreover, the risk of political influence on the police is believed to be quite high, given that a vast majority of the respondents feels that the Kosovo Police is politically influenced indeed, with particular emphasis on the operational work of the institution. According to the respondents’ perceptions, corruption in the Kosovo institutions is widely spread. Althought the level of corruption in the Kosovo Police in 2017 is perceived as lower in comparison with earlier years, this however does not imply that the current state is satisfactory. In addition, relevant police units such as the traffic police, the border police and the closest associates of the Minister of Internal Affairs are viewed as corrupt by almost 50 percent of the citizens. As the public in Kosovo expressed concerns regarding the corruption of relevant police units, respondents have shared their ideas on the prevention of police corruption. More precisely, the research showed that strict punishment of offenders and stricter sanctions for police managers involved in corruption might be necessary to fight police corruption in Kosovo. As trends from 2015 to 2017 show, respondents have listed the Government first when asked about the bodies that should fight corruption within the Kosovo Police. The Government was followed by internal control bodies of the police and the Anti-Corruption Agency. It is surprising that only a small group of tose surveyedh (less than 5 percent) perceived the Prosecutor’s Office as relevant in fighting police corruption. This is mainly attributed to the low level of public trust in the prosecution and judiciary in general. Non-governmental organisations are also not viewed as a significant contributor in this regard. 7 Since serious concerns have been expressed by the respondents who thought that the police is placed at risk by political influence over its operational work, it follows that the independence of the Kosovo Police should be ensured and freed from any influence. In this regard, provisions of the Law on Police should be fully implemented, and the operative police work should not be subject to any influenceat all. Internal policies of the Kosovo Police should be strengthened to gurantee that the recruitment of candidates for employment in the police is conducted solely based on merit. The Police Inspectorate of Kosovo should regularly inspect and oversee the recruitment cycles in the Police to eliminate negative phenomena (such as political connections, pulling of strings, or bribery) in hiring new personnel. Police corruption in Kosovo is still a major concern. Therefore, internal control mechanisms of the Kosovo Police have to further enhance the activities to prevent and combat corruption within the institution itself. According to the responses provided by respondents in this survey, the police should apply strict sanctions when its personnel are implied in the corruption cases, with the aim to reduce and fight police corruption.
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The police force is the second most trusted institution in Macedonia among those selected for this public opinion survey, preceded only by the education system. More than half the population (55%) show trust in the police, but almost one quarter (23%) still don’t trust it at all. The survey showed a positive perception of police officers among the population, especially when it came to policewomen. This should be taken into consideration by the Ministry of Interior when developing communication strategies for building public trust. Also, the Ministry should work harder to gain the trust of unemployed persons, students and young people in general, as the levels were lower in these categories. Private sector employees exhibit the highest trust in the police, followed by those working in the public sector and the pensioners. The level of trust in the police among the ethnic Albanians has increased in 2017, which a positive trend given that it used to be much lower than that of ethnic Macedonians. Currently, there are no significant differences between these ethnic groups. The survey showed that citizens believe that politics play an important role in police work – starting with employment practices that are viewed as dependent on the political connections of the candidate, but also on the operational level. Citizens mainly see the police as a means for protection of the interests of political parties or other particular groups. In line with this, most of the citizens perceive a high level of influence of politicians on operative police work. Therefore, the Ministry of Interior needs to make a considerable effort to depoliticise the police and ensure the implementation of professional standards at all levels within this institution. Even though public trust in the police is relatively high, there is also a perception of widespread corruption which indicates high tolerance of corruption within the Macedonian society. Still, it is encouraging to see that the vast majority (70%) of the citizens would be willing to report police corruption even if they were required to reveal their personal data. Moreover, around half of them would change their minds and report such a case if they could do so anonymously. In addition, there is a wide consensus that motivating citizens to report corrupt police officers is the most necessary action for preventing corruption. Therefore, the stakeholders should focus on promoting the application of mechanisms for oversight and control. If citizens believed that their complaints would indeed be taken seriosly and that corrupt police officers would be held responsible for their deeds, they would be better encouraged to report cases of corruption. Going to the local police station is the first choice for reporting police corruption, while the internal control unit – which is actually responsible for such cases – Is not a very popular choice. Still, most of the respondents think that control within the police force should be first to fight police corruption. It is also interesting to note that one quarter of the citizens would report a case of corruption to a friend working in the police force, meaning that citizens often prefer more informal channels and would rather refer to people than institutions. Therefore, all the employees within the Ministry should be trained to handle such situations. Also, it is espeically important that the staff working at local police stations is properly trained in receiving and proceeding with reports on police corruption.
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More than half of the population in Serbia (56%) showed trust in the police. Over the last three years, a steady yet small increase in the level of trust in the police has been observed. However, it is still below the global average of 60-90%. A decrease in the perceived level of corruption within the police has been identified. Two out of three citizens (68%) see the police as significantly corrupt. This is a drop from 2016, when this was the opinion of 72% of the population. However, only one out of 25 citizens considers police to be completely free of corruption. The police force mostly operates as a service to the citizens, which is the opinion shared by one out of three respondents (37%). Although this association is a positive one, there has been no improvement in this area when compared to the previous year. Moreover, every second citizen (58%) believes that the police operates the least in this capacity, as a service to the citizens. The above mentioned positive developments warrant no commendation, since the citizens are also acutely aware of other problems that exist within the police, as a result of their own personal experiences – corruption, politicisation and lack of professionalism. Despite these problems that citizens perceive to be at rampant levels, they do not seem to be reflected to a great extent in the level of trust reported. Police ranks second when it comes to perceived levels of corruption, preceded only by the healthcare system. Traditionally, the traffic police are the organisational unit deemed most corrupt by the citizens. Citizens associate policemen mostly with arrogance or crudeness (10%) and see them as corrupt (8%). Despite the fact that policewomen comprise a significant share of the police force, a clear gender bias is evident in the citizens’ perceptions, and their first associations have nothing to do with policing. Namely, policewomen are mostly seen as kind and good looking, but also three times less corrupt than their male colleagues. Citizens have unfavourable opinions of how one gains employment in the police force, listing personal connections with friends and relatives as a means to get to wear the blue uniform (46%). This is followed closely by political connections and public competition as means of finding employment (40% each). Three out of four citizens of Serbia (70%) believe that politics excessively influence the operational work of the police, which is the finding that to some extent contradicts their views of police being a service to the citizens. 7 The citizens are extremely unlikely to report corruption in the police. Regardless of whether reporting is done anonymously or one is required to disclose personal data, almost half of the citizens would not report corruption. Only every fourth citizen (26%) would report corruption in the case they need to disclose personal data, whereas additional one out of three (35%) would do it anonymously. The youngest segments of the population (18-29 years old) tend to have the most negative perception of the police force. The youth exhibits the lowest level of trust in the police; they tend to see police officers as more corrupt than the average population, and the opinion that the police force is politicised is highly present within this group. Based on the results of this survey, several recommendations could be suggested. The police need to communicate the results and outcomes of their work to the citizens more effectively in order to improve their own standing. Much more effort needs to be invested in investigating and resolving the issues related to police work, where citizens tend to have very negative perceptions based on their own experiences. The procedures for reporting and dealing with corruption in the police need to be more easily accessible to citizens but also made more efficient to earn their trust.
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