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Having successfully overcome the global economic crisis from 2008, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) of the European Union is facing a new challenge - how to consolidate public finances and reduce public debt in some of the member states. Several factors led to the uncontrolled growth of public debt. The main objective of this paper is an empirical analysis and identification of the main causes of the current situation. It can be argued that some factors inherent in the EMU because of its imperfections, while others are more recent, but the point is that they are all connected and that together they caused the budget deficit that eventually turned into a public debt. The EMU now has the unenviable task - to find the best solution for overcoming the crisis, which will be for the mutual benefit of the EU and its members. However, no one can say whether it is on the right track or it will need to resort to more radical strategies.
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Economic and technological development, especially the development of information technology, has changed the traditional work methods, requiring new and different skills and abilities. In such circumstances, learning skills become particularly important both for young people and for adults. They enable knowledge acquisition, information use, processing, and transformation into new knowledge, skills, and values; they also help develop team work ability and the ability to learn with and from others. For the educational process to be successful, it is not enough that students in classrooms and online courses merely receive information from the literature and electronic resources - they must also communicate with the lecturer/instructor to receive assistance and support in grasping the educational content and to receive feedback on their progress and work methods. This paper primarily focuses on the ways and activities for timely improvement of computer-based learning. The importance of this paper is reflected in a highlighted need to improve learning through theoretical conceptualization and synthesis of the latest findings of modern computer-based learning and through application of these findings in our educational practice, with the purpose of enhancing learning and improving the entire educational system.
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Sustainable development is a developmental concept that takes into account the economic, the environmental, and the social dimension of development. The modern approach to the concept of sustainable development implies acknowledgement of new dimensions or pillars of development. The subject ofthis paper is the institutional dimension as the fourth dimension of sustainable development. The path to sustainable development requires interconnectedness, harmonization, and coordination of different dimensions of development. Institutionally, new principles or concepts are necessary to improve the functioning of the various institutions and actors involved in the process of achieving the goals of sustainable development. The aim of this paper is to indicate that economic, ecological, and social development based on sustainability requires institutional support as a complementary and necessary dimension.
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The main goal of the European Higher Education Area is to prepare students for the labour market, enable them to continue their education in order to acquire further qualifications. However, syllabus and curriculum restructuring has developed consumerist mechanisms, which on the surface seem to offer students greater choice and control over their learning. This could result in a loss of responsibility for learning and reduced tolerance for the expansion of knowledge beyond the routine and the predictable, which would consequently affect their disposition and motivation towards learning. This study aims to explore student motivation and to assess the educational process. For this purpose, the Learning Orientation Questionnaire was used, which identifies conative processes specific to the learning process. The results show that most students carefully plan out learning goals, strategies, and expectedoutcomes before beginning a learning task. Students generally perceive the ideal learning environment to imply a less hierarchical relation and more interaction between teachers and students. In terms of seeking and using additional information to help them learn more about new topics, two groups of students differentiated: the first is interested in receiving a diploma, whereas the other is more interested in receiving a quality education.
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Jana Aleksić: THE WORLD AND THE SACRED: OMEGA POINT THEOLOGY Vladimir Bakrač: RELIGION HERE AND NOW - REVITALIZATION OF RELIGION IN SERBIA Božica Mladenović: ON SERBIAN ACCESS TO THE SEA - THE 1912-1913 CAMPAIGN IN ALBANIA Milena Žikić: HISTORY OF THE SOKOL MOVEMENT IN THE MORAVIAN SOKOL DISTRICT OF NIŠ Jelena Jovanović: FIERY-RED DAWNS
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As one of the most important economic, administrative, cultural, educational, and religious centers of Banat, Vršac is the environment in which the influences of different cultures, religions, and languages are intertwined. Vršac is the seat of the homonymous border municipality, which consists of 24 inhabited areas, with a total of 54 369 inhabitants. In terms of ethnic structure, based on the 2002 census, the most numerous were Serbs (39,418 or 72.5%), followed by Romanians (5,913 or 10.87%), Hungarians (2,819 or 4.81%), Romany (1,186 or 2.18%), Macedonians and Croats (1%), and others (7%). In addition to the above, the introductory part of this article gives details of the World War II census, from which demographic trends and changes in the ethnic structure of Vršac can be monitored. What contributes to the rich diversity is the presence of various confessional communities, namely: Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Uniate (Greek-Catholic), Methodist, Nazarene, Adventist, Pentecostal, and Baptist. After reviewing the current state ofthe religion of the Serbian majority community and the ethnic minorities, special attention is given to the most numerous ethnic group - Romanians. Although they are mostly Orthodox, the Romanian community is a very good example of the religious diversity within a single, seemingly mono-confessional, ethnic group. Thus, in addition to the Orthodox Romanians, in the municipality of Vršac there are Romanian Greek-Catholics, Nazarenes, Baptists, Adventists, and Pentecostals. The results of the qualitative research presented in this paper show that neo-Protestant communities are present in all the places with Romanian population. In the town of Vršac, neo-Protestant communities are ethnically mixed and most of them consist of Serbs and Romanians. Although certain communities have a historical continuity from the late 19th century (Nazarenes and Adventists), most of the communities were established in the last few decades (Baptists and Pentecostals). The emergence of these communities has also influenced the creation of new interfaith relations between traditional and non-traditional communities. Although there is no official dialogue between the representatives of religious communities (priests and pastors) in the local community, there are contacts between believers, especially in the rural areas. The recorded positive examples of interfaith cooperation 1078 are related to the cooperation between the Orthodox and Greek Catholic Romanians, on the one hand, and the cooperation of the neo-Protestant communities between themselves, on the other hand. Negative marking of neo-Protestants in this environment is often expressed by use of the term sectarians, which symbolically represents the attitude of the society towards small religious communities.
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In recent decades, there has been a growing interest for the concept of sustainable development. The interest for this concept was spurred by challenges facing the modern world, such as global warming, the ozone layer depletion, frequent natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and the like), and increased environmental pollution, but also a growing awareness of the importance of environmental protection. The concept of sustainable development includes three elements: economic, social, and environmental element. This paper specifically addresses the implementation of the environmental component of sustainable development in Montenegro. The emphasized fact is that, although Montenegro declared itself an ecological state, the concept of sustainable development is applied more or less on paper only. Therefore, the paper offers concrete recommendations for promoting the concept of sustainable development in Montenegro.
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In this paper, the author focuses on the legal regulation of animal transport as a special domain in the legal protection of animal welfare. With reference to the European Convention for the Protection of Animals During International Transport, the Animal Welfare Act of the Republic of Serbia and the accompanying statutory acts on this issue, as well as the Council Regulations (EC) No. 1255/97 and No. 1/ 2005, the author casts more light on the normative framework governing the commer cial transport of animals, without embarking on the analysis of the veterinary and sanitary requirements and respective veterinary and sanitary control of animal transport. The author points to the principal drawbacks in the process of drafting the national statutory acts on animal transport, discusses the degree of (in)compliance of the national regulations on animal transport withthe European legislation on this matter and emphasizes the need to take a wide range of legal measures in order to provide for a more substantial protection of animal welfare during transport
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In this paper, the changes of the ethnic and confessional structures of the population of two municipalities in the border area of south-eastern Serbia during a fifty-year period (1961 - 2011) are analyzed from the demographic and socio-psychological perspectives. Considering that the territories of these two municipalities partly overlap with the Bulgarian and Macedonian state borders, the focus of the research was directed towards the presence ofcertain nationalities, ethnic diversity, and the quality of interethnic relations. Simultaneously, the examination of ethnic distance among young people confirmed the initial assumptions about their emphasized openness towards the members of other nationalities and readiness for cooperation in all spheres of social life, whereby the belonging to a particular nation or ethnic group loses its importance in comparison to moral and psychological qualities of a person.
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Municipalities in eastern parts of Serbia, with the population of different religions and nations, represent historically, culturally, demographically, and strategically important areas. Kladovo is the best example of a municipality where people from different regions and of different ethnicities and religions foster multiculturalism and tolerance for diversity. The majority of the population is Orthodox Christian, with the Serbs, who are in the majority, and with small proportions of Vlachs, Montenegrins, and Romanians, whose number varies from one settlement to another. In order to present them systematically, the paper records demographic trends in terms of ethnicity and religion from World War II until today. The paper also presents data on religious sites and the religion of the population, the nature and quality of inter-ethnic and inter-religiousrelations among youth, as well as data from the field of media and participation of national minorities in the political life of Kladovо
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The concept of social capital in contemporary sociological theory has proven to be very useful in studying family changes. Social capital represents social processes and networks, values, norms, and understandings that facilitate the cooperation between social actors. One sociological understanding views social capital as the property of the whole social community, and the other considers it to be the property of individuals and their relationships. What is common to all these approaches is that they see family as the key factor in the reproduction of social capital. In this paper, by using the theoretical conception of Pierre Bourdieu, we analyzed the state of social capital of families in the city of Istočno Sarajevo. To most of the families who live in the conditions of long-lasting post-war social crisis, social capital represents a necessary condition for their normal functionings.
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The emphasis on the harmonization of company law as a presumption for the operation of the EU internal market has given way to the concept of regulatory competition. It implies that the propensity towards a comprehensive unification of the EU company law has been abandoned, which eventually enables a free movement of companies in the market. In this paper, the author considers how such a standpoint affects the decision of the company founders as members of the society to choose the Member State where the company will be registered, irrespective of the company’s principal place of business. The author points out to the freedom of establishing a company and the limitations concerning the freedom of residence as the basic presumptions governing the company’s choice ofapplicable law within the primary legislation of the European Community. In particular, the author focuses on the question concerning the extent to which the national legislations of the Member States may limit the company’s freedom to choose the applicable law.
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This paper summarizes the findings of voluminous methodological literature, as well as our concrete research experience, achieved through conducting many projects, in which the qualitative approach was used either exclusively or complemented by the quantitative approach. The considerable heterogeneity of theoretical concepts within which qualitative research is planned and implemented has caused the emergence of numerous variations of the qualitative approach in research practice. In this review of the main elements of the qualitative research approach, applied to criminological investigations, we will ignore some of these differences and present them in a somewhat simplified form, with the enumeration of common bases and principles. After a short review of the application of the quantitative and qualitative approaches to research in criminology and a summary of the chief features of the qualitative research approach, we will present the key elements of shaping research design and describe the selection of data collection methods, as well as procedures for their analysis in the qualitative studies of criminological phenomena
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Cross-border mergers are a substantial topic in the European Union, since this issue is associated with free movement of capital. This is why directives concerning cross-border mergers have been issued. This article analyzes cross-border mergers in the Czech Republic, and the possible reasons for their limited use. The accounting concept of the decisive date deviates from the legal concept of the merg-ing companies’ legal existence. Determination of the decisive date according to the local law of vari-ous member countries thus varies because each state may modify or adapt the Tenth Directive in accordance with their own legal systems. Harmonisation of accounting for cross-border merger within the EU is, however, regulated inadequately. Such missing harmonization of accounting aspects of mergers results in a situation where each state adopts its own „customized” regulation. This would not be wrong if it did not involve cross-border mergers where mutual compatibility is necessary. Income tax advantages may be gained in cross-border mergers. At this point, however, tax advantages could be at least described as problematic or even unattainable. As a way out of this difficult situation, there appears to be an amendment to the current laws and regulation of accounting in the EU Member States.
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