Publisher: Център за изследване на демокрацията

"Лошите кредити": институционални и финансови аспекти, 1994

Author(s): Christina Vutcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian

Since the beginning of 1991 Bulgaria has been living through a period of transition from centralized totalitarian control to free market economy. Year 1990 can be said to mark the political liberation of the people with the adoption of the new Constitution. The economic liberalization, however, is a reality yet to be brought to life since private ownership is not prevalent in the economy. The prime aim of the transition is to substitute an absurd and inefficient economic system for a new one to rely on the free initiative, private ownership and competition.

10+1 Good Practices in Preventing Intolerance, Discrimination, and Group Hatred in Central and Eastern Europe

Author(s): Gergana Tzvetkova / Language(s): English

This compendium was created by the consortium members of the CEE Prevent Net initiative. Its development is the result of a robust exchange of good practice methods among various organizations and civil society actors in the areas of youth work and (non-formal) education aimed at preventing intolerance, discrimination, and right-wing populism and extremism in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Initially, this volume was supposed to present 10 good practices for working with young people directly; however, the CEE Prevent Net network decided to expand this initial enterprise gratuitously. This additional section provides youth workers, educators, and other civic actors with recommendations and advocacy strategies for youth work that fosters tolerance, facilitates dialogue, and prevents discrimination and far right ideologies.

A Force for Good? Mapping the Private Security Landscape in Southeast Europe

Author(s): Arjan Dyrmishi,Rositsa Dzhekova,Donika Emini,Gentiola Madhi,Marko Milošević,Predrag Petrović,Atanas Rusev,Mentor Vrajolli / Language(s): English

The volume explores and assesses the origins and current state of the private security sector in four Southeast European countries (Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and Kosovo), with specific reference to principles of good governance and the protection of human rights. In particular, the authors examine when and how the first private security companies developed and whether and how PSCs, their clients, and other factors such as relevant legislation determined the services private security offer today, and which companies were established/have survived in the market. The studies look into the economic importance of private security especially as a source of employment. They also explore if PSCs are able to provide quality security services by looking at the background and qualifications of managers and employees. A number of important questions are addressed: who are the people who work for PSCs, what is their level of expertise and professionalism and what are their working conditions? How important are (political) relationships for the success of a PSC and do domestic political considerations have an impact on which PSC receives contracts and how well they work? How is quality defined and enforced by both PSCs and their clients, especially public sector clients? Finally, do PSCs and state security providers coordinate, cooperate or compete with each other?

A Painful Shift in Bulgarian Anti-Corruption Policies and Practice

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

The most important shift in Bulgaria’s anti-corruption policies in recent months is the move from “soft” (awareness-raising) campaigns to “hard” (prevention and sanctions oriented) measures with immediate anti-corruption effects. Taken together these recent developments create a tipping point for countering political corruption, a critical mass of action to guarantee that Bulgaria moves to a new equilibrium of lower political and administrative corruption. The latest CSD Brief points out that more pressure and support both from EU partners and from the Bulgarian civil society and mass media would be needed for the country to move more quickly to this new equilibrium. Bulgaria still needs to address several outstanding challenges to complement its initial steps against political corruption: • coordination of anti-corruption measures; • pro-active generation of anti-corruption policies; • decrease the corruption vulnerability of public procurement by ensuring transparency and accountability; • reducing channels for political payback and corruption; • public-private partnerships; • reducing VAT fraud; • more efforts in the administrative domain, including government’s commitment to independent oversight of its anti-corruption actions; • measuring the impact on the level of corruption of all anti-corruption programs implemented in the country.

Accelerated lignite exit in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece

Author(s): Martin Vladimirov,Todor Galev,Radostina Primova / Language(s): English

In light of the ambitious targets for long term decarbonisation set by the European Green Deal, a critical question for decision-makers is how to sustain a coal phase-out that is as swift as possible while also ensuring security of supply, affordable electricity, and a just transition in regions dependent on coal. The aim of this report is to support decision makers in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania to implement a timely phase-out of coal by analysing the impact on electricity systems as well as the local economy, and highlighting policy recommendations to deal with potential issues related to compensation, system security and local economic impacts.

ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMENT: SELF AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Since the end of 1999 Vitosha Research with the Center for the Study of Democracy and Freedom House foundation, has been working on an international project entitled Accountable Government: Self and Public Perception. Activities under this initiative included the conducting of sociological surveys in Romania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria. Fieldwork was conducted in the period March 23 - April 15, 2000. The present paper outlines the findings of the surveys conducted in Bulgaria among the general population and MPs from the 38th National Assembly.

Addressing Environmental Crimes and Marine Pollution in the EU: Compendium of International and EU Law Instruments

Author(s): Nicola Giovannini,Luigi Melica,Marco Giannotta,Malena Zingoni / Language(s): English

This publication draws upon the materials of a training course for legal professionals from selected EU Member States as well as countries on the road to EU membership, geographically located along the coast of the Adriatic sea (namely Italy, Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia), which was organised by the Department of Legal Studies of the University of Salento, in partnership with The Center for the Study of Democracy and Droit au Droit. The purpose of the training sessions, held in Lecce, Italy, and Sofia, Bulgaria, was to train legal professionals on the EU legislation and jurisprudence on environmental crimes in order to strengthen their knowledge and competence in the sector as well as their capacity to contribute to their effective enforcement. It contains a presentation of the most relevant international treaties and conventions related to the matter as well as of the comprehensive legal framework established by the EU to ensure the implementation of its environmental protection policy. This publication is a part of the “Judicial Training and Research on European crimes against the environment and maritime pollution” project, supported by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice.

Addressing Environmental Crimes and Marine Pollution in the EU: Legal guidelines and case studies

Author(s): Nicola Giovannini,Luigi Melica,Entela Cukani,Marco Giannotta,Malena Zingoni / Language(s): English

The purpose of this handbook is to provide to judges, prosecutors, forensic officers and other legal practitioners an overview of the existing European and international instruments and rules aimed at tackling environmental crimes and in particular marine pollution, as well as an analysis of the challenges faced in their implementation and enforcement process.

Addressing the Threat of Fraud and Corruption in Public Procurement: Review of State of the Art Approaches

Compendium

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

The present compendium of selected best practices addresses the threat of fraud and corruption from multiple perspectives, with the underlying purpose of providing practitioners from Romania and Greece with a set of state of the art approaches for addressing the threat of fraud and corruption in the complex multi-layered national public procurement systems. This publication is based on ideas presented at the international seminar EU's Financial Interests under Threat: New Approaches in Assessing the Risks from Public Procurement and EU Funds Fraud, organised on 31 October – 1 November 2013 in Sofia, with the support of the European AntiFraud Office (OLAF).

Advocacy to Prevent Intolerance, Discrimination and Group-focused Enmity of Youth in Bulgaria, Germany and the Visegrad Group

Author(s): Mila Mancheva,Gergana Tzvetkova,Liliya Dragoeva / Language(s): English

As part of the initiative “CEE Prevent Net”, CSD joined an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners, which investigated advocacy and communication strategies for advancing prevention in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The team reviewed existing strategies and good practices, conducted field work and interviewed about 150 governmental and non-governmental stakeholders in youth affairs and prevention from different professions and ends of the political spectrum. Their final report offers strategies and recommendations for practitioners and civil society to engage in political advocacy to prevent intolerance, discrimination and group hatred of youth. In particular, these recommendations focus on the possibilities for advocacy under unfavorable conditions in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, such as growing levels of group hatred and right-wing extremism, shrinking civic space or the erosion of human rights standards, media independence and the rule of law, which pose a serious threat to peaceful and democratic societies in the region.

Ambulant sanctions as an alternative to imprisonment in the European Union

Author(s): Christine M. Graebsch,Sven-Uwe Burkhardt / Language(s): English

The issue of imprisonment vs. alternative penalties has been debated in various European countries during the last decades, and ambulant sanctions have been heavily on the rise. Community sentences and other alternatives to imprisonment are regarded as modern instruments for the rehabilitation of offenders. The objective of the present study is to examine the scope of application of penalties without deprivation of liberty as compared to imprisonment as well as to identify promising practices of alternative criminal sanctioning in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain and Lithuania. As this study covers several European countries, the comparative perspective suggests itself nearly as a matter of course. In this connection, it seems reasonable to describe the existing ambulant sanctions of the different member states involved, taking into account their legal arrangement and their relation within the system of penal sanctions including their relation to the deprivation of liberty. It in addition appears sensible to describe and compare these ambulant sanctions with reference to their contribution to the re-socialisation or rehabilitation of those subjected to them as well as with special attention to the involvement of civil society in their execution. In a further step, promising practices in connection with ambulant sanctions could be highlighted which may be recommended for imitation by other member states. Such an approach proves to be impossible for multiple reasons, though, and it would be inadequate just to make such an attempt. There are exemplary references to ambulant sanctions in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Lithuania and Spain. This is due to the fact that scientists from these countries have taken part in the realisation of this project but not necessarily because of specific outstanding features of their sanction systems in comparison with other member states.

Anti-Corruption in Public Procurement: Balancing the Policies

Author(s): Jens Andvig,Boyko Todorov / Language(s): English

This paper analyzes the mechanisms of corruption in public procurement in the context of the EU policies in this area. The analysis focuses on the implications of governance failures in procurement as experienced in two countries of quite different corruption propensities – Norway and Bulgaria – for the European anti-corruption and public procurement policies. The paper intends to inform the development of the expected EU policy updates in these areas by analyzing the trade-offs that are necessitated when combining competition and anti-corruption goals.

Anti-Corruption in Southeast Europe: First Steps and Policies

Author(s): / Language(s): English

The main goal of the Report is to sensitize politicians and civil society to the specific set of sources of corruption in the region. The first part analyzes the origins of cross border corruption in the region which is seen as a result of the rise of transnational crime caused by the violent break-up of former Yugoslavia. It intends to show that regional factors significantly contribute to national-level corruption and could undermine national anti-corruption efforts. In the second part, the report evaluates the national circumstances in which the regional factors develop. It compares the national legislation and institutional practice in a number of areas critical to anti-corruption efforts: regulatory and legal framework, institutional prerequisites, corruption in the economy, the role of civil society and media and international cooperation. The second part is ultimately a collection of contributions from watchdog organizations in the countries in Southeast Europe. In fact, the nature of regional concerns about corruption is evident in the limitations of this report – namely that the level of institutional development, policy implementation practice and international affiliations of the countries in SEE are varying to such a degree that only a “bird’s eye view” could reveal the source of common problem. This was very much in line with the USAID approach that there is a strong conceptual distinction between law enforcement approaches to corruption, which try to strengthen crime-fighting efforts, and a more holistic approach that addresses poor governance systems more broadly. The countries covered by the RCAR included Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.

Anti-Corruption Measures in EU Border Control

Author(s): Philip Gounev,Rositsa Dzhekova,Tihomir Bezlov / Language(s): English

The present study, commissioned by FRONTEX, provides academic and policy perspectives, as well as empirical data on corruption and anti-corruption measures observed in border guard institutions across the 27 Member States of the European Union. The report compares and analyses anti-corruption measures in EU Member States’ border guard services, as well as the strategies and instruments used in corruption investigations of border guards. The purpose of this study was to provide border guards with a general overview of the relevant academic and policy research available on the subject of corruption, as well as to review and analyse mechanisms of corruption and the principal anti-corruption measures targeting them.

Anticorruption Reforms in Bulgaria

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

The report makes an overview of the conducted anticorruption reforms in Bulgaria since 1997 and analyses the spheres of penetration, as well as the levels and dynamics of corruption in the Bulgarian society and presents the major achievements and problems of anticorruption reforms. It also defines the challenges for the conducting of anticorruption reforms, which ensue from the pending accession of Bulgaria to the European Union: i.e. overcoming of structural and institutional barriers in counteracting corruption; effective functioning of judiciary and law enforcement systems; restriction of corruption-generating practices of the organized crime and grey economy. // Coalition 2000 is an initiative of Bulgarian non-governmental organizations launched in the spring of 1997, which aims at counteracting corruption in th Bulgarian society through a partnership between state institutions, non-governmental organizations and individuals, who developed and have been implementing an Anti-Corruption Action Plan, a Corruption Monitoring System, and an anti-corruption public awareness campaign.

Anti-Corruption Reforms in Bulgaria: Key Results and Risks

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

This is the eighth Corruption Assessment Report providing an overview of the state and dynamics of corruption in Bulgaria and Bulgarian anticorruption policy. It analyzes the main results and risks of the anticorruption process from the period immediately preceding Bulgaria’s accession to the EU through to the first months of EU membership. The report builds on regular monitoring of the spread of corruption, its trends, evaluations of the anti-corruption efforts and initiatives implemented by government institutions and by civil society, as well as a number of suggestions and recommendations on anti-corruption measures, including considerations related to the administration of EU’s structural funds. In addition to the main corruption indexes which have consistently displayed lower values throughout 2006 and early 2007, the report draws on authoritative international surveys to assess corruption levels in Bulgaria in comparison to EU member states. Furthermore, Bulgaria’s EU member status demands that national anti-corruption initiatives are implemented in close coordination with EU and international efforts in this area. Therefore, corruption would be most appropriately measured and assessed by a common EU benchmarking methodology as the most reliable yardstick for international comparisons.

Assessing the Integration of Vulnerable Migrant Groups in Ten EU Member States

Author(s): Mila Mancheva,Andrey Nonchev,Slavyanka Ivanova / Language(s): English

This publication presents the results of a comparative monitoring study of the integration policies and outcomes for third-country-national (TCN) women, TCN children and TCN victims of trafficking in ten EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Spain. The study produced findings at two levels of analysis: an in-depth assessment of how migrant integration policies and programmes meet the needs of vulnerable migrant groups, and an assessment of their integration outcomes. Drawing on the analysis of these findings, the publication provides recommendations for improving monitoring mechanisms for migrant integration at the national and EU levels and for elaborating policy approaches for better integration of vulnerable migrants.

Background Document on Corruption in Southeast Europe

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Better Management of EU Borders through Cooperation

Study to Identify Best Practices on the Cooperation between Border Guards and Customs Administrations Working at the External Borders of the EU

Author(s): Philip Gounev,Tihomir Bezlov,Mois Faion,Dobromir Hristov / Language(s): English

The study Better Management of EU Borders through Cooperation was commissioned by Directorate General ‘Home Affairs’ of the European Commission. CSD led a team of international experts to examine and identify the best practices of cooperation between Border Guards and Customs administrations working at the external borders of the European Union. During the yearlong effort, the CSD team interviewed representatives of all customs and border guard agencies of EU Member States. In twelve Member States the CSD team visited 25 land border crossings, ports, and airports to discuss with Customs and Border Guard officers how the cooperation between them takes place in practice. The study examines eleven particular areas of cooperation including: strategic planning, information exchange, workflow coordination at Border Crossing Points (BCP), risk analysis, criminal investigations, joint operations, control over ‘green’ and ‘blue’ borders, emergency situations, infrastructure and equipment sharing, and training and human resource management.

'Brain Drain' in Transition of Science

Author(s): Daniela Bobeva / Language(s): English

The paper analysis the reasons why Bulgaria is one of the specific cases of science development and 'Brain Drain'. Bulgaria is one of the countries with the largest share of unemployed with higher education - 17% of all unemployed. The unemployment promotes the emigration attidues among scientist. The data indicates that the Bulgarian science personnel is ageing. Less and less young people work in the research institutions. Special measures are needed in this respect on the part of the government for encouraging young people. Before the reforms Bulgaria used to have a highest standard by the indicator "employed in science per capita".