Environment: Sea Change Needed in Central Asia
The regional status quo could lead to a genuine water crisis, which could even include war, one researcher warns.
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The regional status quo could lead to a genuine water crisis, which could even include war, one researcher warns.
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Macedonians mock some of the public-service TV spots the government churns out. Now some are getting angry at what they say are political messages paid for by taxpayers.
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The deportees – most of whom were Meskhetian Turks, a Muslim community settled on Georgian territory – were transported to …
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If you ever wondered what happened with journalists who paddled hatred and warmongering in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, this film (Years Eaten by Lions, a 2010 documentary by Boro Kontic) can enlighten you.
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It’s not technically illegal for members of the European Parliament to peddle their influence for cash. And for some, it’s normal.
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The Reaction to Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - book by Timothy Snyder.
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This paper aims at pointing out the evolution in real and financial plans in order to adhere to the EMU, using a comparative approach, on the example of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. The main results of the study are the following: the four countries have made notable progress in the years preceding the current crisis; however, considerable efforts are still needed in order to comply with the euro zone, in terms of living standards, economic structure, degree of openness of the economy, etc.; refer the financial convergence, directions are needed to increase the financial intermediation and financial depth in Romania and Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary recording slightly more favourable indicators. On the other hand, central banks, except the Polish one, should significantly improve the transmission mechanism of monetary policy upon the financial and real sphere.
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In this article, the various possible EU taxes are compared with regard to each of the criteria: budgetary, equity and efficiency criteria. In principle, this problem of revenue insufficiency can be overcome by combining several resources, including contributions from the Member States, to make up for the needs of the EU budget Setting an equalisation mechanism to replace or complement the current GNI contribution could thus be a useful complement to tax autonomy in the context of a reform of the current own resource system.
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Romanian exports represented, lately, a major engine of economic growth. However, only a deep analysis of these can reveal the factors that contributed to their competitiveness. Indicators that capture the changes in market shares provide the most accurate picture of the concept of competitiveness of exports. They are found in the literature as a method of constant market share analysis, method developed by H. Tyszyinski in 1951.
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The paper aims to illustrate how strategic trade policy is used by analyzing the concrete situation in the world aircraft industry, focusing on the case of the large civil aircrafts and on the regional jet aircrafts. We want to clarify which is the position of GATT / WTO regarding the strategic trade policy, what are the factors which made it possible to use strategic trade policy in the aviation industry and how the strategic trade policy was implemented by the four major market actors considered, the disputes that have arisen from the use of strategic trade policy and how these were resolved.
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The article analyses the negotiations between European Union and countries of the Western Balkans and attempts to identify where the major problems are likely to be. The main obstacles in the process of European integration of the countries from Balkan region are analyzed. Also, the paper focuses on the key priorities that Western Balkan countries have to accomplish in order to reach the domestic readiness for their process of European integration. An important goal of the article is to identify some important conclusions for the European roadmap of the Republic of Moldova from experience of the presented states.
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A distinctive characteristic of The Global Economy over the last few decades has been the rising rate and the impressive increase in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI globally). Due to the potential role that foreign direct investments may play in accelerating the growth rate and re-shaping the economy, many developing countries are seeking such types of investments that can multiply the efforts being made towards the growth of their economy. The purpose of this research is to analyze the flows of foreign direct investments in Romania between 2003 and 2010. The results of the research highlight the negative balance between the trade balance and the enterprises with FDI in 2007-2010, due to the financial crisis, to the fragile budget balance, due to the low competitiveness of the imports, the low quality of the Romanian products and the macroeconomic risk determined by the rate of inflation, the unemployment and the instability in the exchange rate.
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Cigarette smuggling is a global phenomenon and so well-organized that it poses a serious threat to public health and national economies. The aim of the article is to highlight the main definitions and classifications between illegal tobacco trade and cigarette smuggling and also to describe the general situation of Europe. Based on data retrieved from International Tobacco Trade and UNODC, the paper is focused on the price differences, source countries, supply and demand and on the analysis of reports and articles. Furthermore the main findings emphasize the role of high taxation and corruption which have affected the European economies.
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The financial situation of a firm represents a knowledge that is necessary for all stakeholders because they all need to have information about the capacity of the entity to be profitable. The purpose of the study is to examine the evolution of insolvency regulation throughout the years by concentrating on the changes made in laws. The peculiarities of insolvency law influence the way in which the companies cope with their financial difficulties. The number of insolvent companies and the rate of insolvency are values that show the differences between countries and give the possibility to realize a comparison of the regulations in order to establish the aspects that need improvements.
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The first EU Alert Mechanism Report demonstrates the vulnerable macroeconomic external position of Romania, the current Romanian’s balance of payments reflecting a severe need of financing and capitalization. On the other hand, the 2007-2013 programming period potentially provided a significant amount of EU money for investments (around 29 billion euro) through Structural Funds. However, five years after the beginning of the current financial framework, the level of absorption remains extremely low. The paper focuses on the main Romanian macroeconomic imbalances (the current account balance, international investment position) and on the most important sources for financing investments and development - the EU financial structural instruments: ERDF and Cohesion Fund.
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The policies regarding regional development in the last years took tourism more and more into account, as a strategic sector for the assurance of a dynamic economic growth of regions with an important tourism potential. Consequently, we intend to analyse the implications of the North-East Regional Development Agency in the development of Romanian tourism in the present socio-economic context, both at regional and at national level.
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Understanding how monetary policy decisions affect inflation and other economic variables is particularly important. In this paper we consider the implications of monetary policy under the inflation targeting regime in Romania, based on an autoregressive vector method including recursive VAR and structural VAR (SVAR). Therefore, we focus on assessing the extent and persistence of monetary policy effects on gross domestic product (GDP), price level, extended monetary aggregate (M3) and exchange rate. The main results of VAR analysis reflect a negative response of consumer price index (CPI), GDP and M3 and positive nominal exchange rate behaviour to a monetary policy shock, and also a limited impact of a short-term interest rate shock in explaining the consumer prices, production and exchange rate fluctuations.
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In 1864 the law concerning the uniform of the judges and lawyers was promulgated. For lawyers wearing the suit was optional. The situation remained so until the beginning of the twentieth century. In late 1903, Ilfov’s Bar Disciplinary Board decided that the suit for lawyers should become mandatory. Immediately, a trend uniting the lawyers who were against the binding uniforms appeared. As some of these lawyers were also senators or deputies, they proposed a single article draft law that aimed at keeping the lawyer’s suit optional. The issue was discussed in both Chambers of Parliament. Also, two streams of opinion appeared in the juridical press. Some were for the introduction of the robe and others for maintaining it optional. Finally, it was decided that the measure should become mandatory in 1905. In 1909 the uniform for lawyers returned to the optional. This was not an important issue but the debate about the uniform also revealed other problems of the lawyers in the early 20th century.
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One of the major conditions in the completion of Russia’s withdrawal from Moldavia in the first half of the year 1851 was the certitude that Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica could maintain and control a peaceful internal situation. From this point of view, the Nadoche and Waikum affairs posed a real challenge to the Moldavian authorities. In both cases, the presence and the activity of two suspect foreign subjects in the Principality demanded urgent measures, in order to prove both Russia and the Porte that the government could deal with such threats. However, the confusion roused by the Nadoche affair, coupled with the diplomatic complications of the Waikum affair, showed that the Moldavian administration had to make further efforts to temper its overzealous attitude and to overcome bureaucratic difficulties.
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Apostol Arsachi was one of the most long-lived Romanian political personalities from the 19th century. His career began during the “Phanariot epoque”, it continued during the reign of the Romanian princes and the regulatory period and it ended with the “liberal” regime induced by the Convention from Paris. From many points of view, he remained faithful to the paradigms characteristic to the first half of the century. The national ”double identity” and the intellectual training influenced by Enlightenment were the “stimulating” elements in this regard. His speech remained attached to the classic values: tradition, property, church, aristocratic authority, thus becoming one of the main political actors of the first conservative generation. The specific character of his position (in a wider meaning, of the Romanian conservatism during its first decades) was given by the perpetuation of Enlightenment and by a certain liberal touch (noticeable especially in the economic aspects). His intellectual sources (Rousseau, Guizot, Thiers, Adam Smith, etc.) had a fundamental role in the delineation of this apparently paradoxical attitude which can nevertheless be explained by the political man’s specific education but also by the permanent need to be legitimate in a political environment in which the options derived from the 1848 Revolution started to be predominant.
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