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Борбата со корупцијата е горливо прашање за Република Македонија. Европска комисија во последниот извештај за напредок констатира дека корупцијата и понатаму продолжува да постои во многу области и дека корупцијата во јавните набавки е сериозен проблем. Понатаму, корупцијата на локално ново во Република Македонија е недоволно истражена, а и јавната доверба во институциите надлежни за справување со корупција е ниска, па затоа е важно поактивно вклучување на граѓанскиот сектор во мониторирање на трошењето на јавните пари како и континуирано истражување на областа, со цел да се придонесе кон зајакнување на доброто владеење во државата.
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The rightsizing process has been initiated as a result of the inefficiency of pubic organizations in fulfilling their responsibilities effectively. Organizations across the world including public ones, perceive rightsizing as a catalyst of organizational reforms. In addition, due to government’s employments of large numbers of population, the human resources dimension of any public sector restructuring has become a very important national activity and a difficult and complex task to be fulfilled. This automatically derives the fact that rightsizing has become a major reform endeavor in all countries pretending to be in service of citizens. Organizational structure represents a vital component of the public administration system. Giving an exact definition related to organizational structure of the public administration, is not as simple as it looks, this mainly is because it does not include only the number of the people employed but also the number of positions and jobs. Starting from this point, the main idea for tackling rightsizing issues, has been to develop a study over the employed staff’s structure, jobs and positions and thus to define the points where layoff or recruitment actions should be taken.
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The latest European Commission Progress Report on Macedonia, once again pointed out the importance of pursuing thorough public administration reforms in the country. The EC explicitly demands that before starting accession negotiations, Macedonia should intensively pursue public administration reforms with the focus on de-politicization of recruitment and advancement in the civil service. Evidently, this progress report raises some critical issues concerning Macedonia’s public administration (PA) which was not the case in previous reports. Inefficiency, corruption and politicization of PA have been identified as obstacles of overall quality of reforms. Because of this, many believed that reforms in PA shall continue with a fresh enthusiasm and tackle the deep-rooted malformations of the system and head for fundamental systematic change. Understandably, actions aimed for systematic change require decisiveness and sometimes even controversial overhaul of the civil service that suppose to determine its new image. New policy discussion for changes in the Law on Civil Servants aimed at replacing the “position based” with “career based” civil service system is contributing in achieving the fundamental systematic change in the civil service. Although the policy discussion has been on agenda for some time, we suggest that career based approach should be discussed further, and once a new momentum is established conducive for needed reform, the issue is pursued and finalised by the governing authorities.
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Violent suppression of protests in Ukraine and use of force have triggered a deep crisis involving all important actors in the region and have resulted in 88 deaths and 700 injured. Even if the apex was the flee of Yanukovych, withdrawal of security forces and release of Yulia Tymoshenko, the situation still remains tense because the protestors’ demands were not fulfilled, while Russophile regions are dissatisfied with the recent developments. The escape of Yanukovych does not resolve the problems Ukraine is facing; it simply puts an end to violence. Ukraine teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, with an interim president, without an institutionalized parliamentary majority. Protests that lasted for three months and started once the Government of Azarov refused to sign the Association Agreement with the EU and, subsequently, turned into anti-Yanukovych protests, were a historical event that was proof of the Ukraining nation welding. Protests outcome cannot be deemed a palace coup, since the Parliament voted by constitutional majority the return to 2004 Constitution and, subsequently, the mechanisms of this Constitution were implemented, which provide for the appointment of parliament speaker as interim president, although the procedure was not duly complied with.
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The headwinds facing the euro area are many and substantial: there is no pretence of denial. While most attention is correctly devoted to the size of rescue packages for some countries and the terms of crisis management and resolution mechanisms, we argue that these challenges must also be met from within the euro area. We are aided by a simple framework illustrating how the benefits the euro can generate depend on the degree of openness, flexibility and income correlation among euro area countries. Sharing the euro has steadily transformed euro area economies that are now deeply interconnected. This is generating largely benign effects that represent the intrinsic value of the euro area: it is a sharedas set. Yet, such integration has provided the ground for the transmission of the sovereign crisis: through financial exposure, trade linkages and cross-country asset ownership.
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Central Asia faces a broad range of security challenges. Due to the region’s position at the crossroads between Russia, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and the Caspian Sea it is confronted with a range of trans-national issues such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, organised crime and terrorism. Central Asia also encounters specific regional threats including scarcity of water resources for generating power and irrigation purposes, which is currently causing tension. On a national level the five Central Asian republics face the threat of instability due to bad governance and the harsh impact of the economic crisis.
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In 2002, Romano Prodi, then President of the European Commission, proudly announced a plan to create a unified border guard for the European Union. Police from various member states would serve together under the EU flag to protect their common external borders. The idea sought to promote a common European identity and to assuage continent-wide fears that the EU’s borders were hopelessly under siege. “We would like to reassure our citizens,” Prodi declared, “that we will protect our borders against terrorism, organised crime and uncontrolled immigration.” While a common EU border guard has yet to see the light of day, a common EU export strategy has emerged in border management assistance. Such assistance aims to help recipient states strike a healthy balance between open and secure borders. This is not entirely altruistic.
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Relations between Central Asia and the post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe have largely been developed in the shadow of Russia. Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine have established ties through integration projects in the post-Soviet space that are led by Russia, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and other initiatives. But against this, bilateral and multilateral relations between CIS countries have often been aimed at counterbalancing Russia’s dominance. GUUAM, for example, was an alliance between Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova formed in 1999; after the departure of Uzbekistan in 2005, it became known as GUAM. The organisation was conceived as an alternative cooperation project, and Moscow perceived it to be anti-Russian.
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Mongolia is beginning to attract more interest from European organisations and institutions. A Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Mongolia and the European Union is expected to be concluded soon, and in March 2012, NATO agreed an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program (IPCP) with Mongolia. In October 2011, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel took time out from dealing with the financial crisis to visit the country, and the OSCE Secretary General visited in June 2012 to discuss Mongolia’s request to become a fully participating member of the organisation.
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The European Union’s (EU) Strategy for Central Asia is being reviewed for the fourth time. Over the last eight years, the EU has been successful in creating several institutionalised mechanisms for working and bolstering relations with Central Asian governments, including an increased presence on the ground. But the overall picture of the EU’s engagement in Central Asia is one of limited to no impact. The region has become more unstable; democracy is seen by the regimes as a threat to their survival; and human rights have been backsliding. Whereas some global and regional actors have laid out a broader policy vision for Central Asia – ‘New Silk Road’ by the United States (US), ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ by China – the EU devised a detailed written strategy in 2007 outlining seven priorities ranging from democracy promotion to education and from security to energy and trade interests.
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While the EU has recently upgraded its external democracy promotion policies through a set of initiatives such as the “Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean”, the proposal for a “European Endowment of Democracy”, and the “Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy”, there is one challenge that it has not yet addressed: what exactly does it aim to support? This policy brief illustrates that both the conceptualisation of democracy and the means to achieve it remain vague, and explains why this is problematic. It points out the risks that stem from a lack of clear understanding about how human rights, governance, civil society and socio-economic development relate to democratisation. It concludes that the EU should reflect on the substance of its external democracy promotion policies and conceptualise the relationship between the different elements of democracy promotion cited above and democratisation.
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A strict separation, or ‘Chinese walls’, between the supervisory and monetary policy arms of the European Central Bank is not needed. The economic literature is not unanimous on this issue and we argue that a strict separation of supervision and monetary policy is not desirable during a financial crisis when thes ystemic stability of the financial system represents the biggest threat to a monetary policy that aims at price stability. The key problem hampering the ECB today is that it lacks detailed information on the state of health of the banking system, which is often highly confidential. Chinese walls would not solve this problem.
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This policy brief argues that a ‘governance gap’ explains the existential crisis of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The true causes of the EU’s inertia as a security actor in its neighbourhood and beyond are not a lack of capability or even austerity measures, but the absence of a core group of states committed to driving integration forward. Member states are reluctant to set clear common strategic priorities and struggle to agree on a revision of the institutional rules. Their strategic cultures and interests differ significantly; they hold different visions of CSDP, and are unwilling to use the CSDP instruments at their disposal.
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