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The present report analyses the nature and the chronology about the Doha Round of Negotiations as well as the main elements of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU. Then the author analyses the links between the Doha Round and the CAP, including the positions expressed by the EU and by the developing countries during the course of negotiations.
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Many different economical studies have been realized in Albania these last years. This study provides some economical data about financial allocation during years 2007-2013 in Albania. The goal of this paper is to present the correlation between comparative analyses of the financial data of IPA for Albania on different periods of time. For this purpose we have received data from respective institutions during the years of the study. This economical data will presented for the first time in this scientific international activity, since it is a recent study. Financial data are processed statistically, according to the comparative analyses we found out several interesting data that showed clearly the correlation during years. Comparing these data we found out that, EU financial assistance is also provided to improve penitentiary infrastructures and strengthen the capacity of the Albanian Judicial and Penitentiary system in accordance with EU and international standards. Its objective is to enhance the situation in the detention facilities in the country through decreasing the overcrowding and improving the detainees' and juvenile’s living conditions.
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The first decade of the 21st century was accompanied by increased price volatility and price spikes in commodity markets. This caused a chain reaction in the world economy. The changes that took place had not only an economic but also a social dimension. Price volatility is expressed through the transfer of uncertainty from the financial sector to other sectors of the global economy. At the time of the collapse of the capital markets, commodities recorded record turnovers. New financial instruments have appeared to allow the avalanche-like increase in the positions of institutional speculators in commodity markets. In the short term, increased uncertainty is crucial for the price stability of the food. For example, through its impact mechanisms, climate change may cause another 115 million people worldwide to face chronic hunger and reach a total of more than 700 million people. For our country, the volatility of grain prices is of strategic importance.
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The territorial cohesion is a fundamental principle of regional policy among the EU countries. Cohesion, or cohesion in the socio-economic and environmental development of the countries of the community, is applied in order to limit and reduce territorial (spatial) inequalities, which always arise objectively in the course of natural and social dynamics. This problem has been identified as a priority for the EU since the early 1990s. The main objectives related to the territorial cohesion policy are: - How to use the strengths and weaknesses of each territory to make a qualitative transition to sustainable and balanced development (regional and national level)? - How to achieve effective territorial concentration of resources? - How to minimize the costs of land management, respectively in urban areas, rural areas and specific areas? In the last two decades, the socio-economic development of Bulgaria has been accompanied by growing regional inequalities - demographic, urban, economic, infrastructural. Despite the already performed assessments and evaluations, this tendency is deepening, which is accompanied by an increase in the costs of material and financial resources for territorial governance. Studies were conducted at a national level in the countries of Western and Central Europe, which revealed processes of increasing territorial disparities in the development and territorial organization of natural social systems. Therefore, for the period 2001-2011, in spite of the consistently pursued and targeted funding of territorial cohesion policy in the EU, the added value received is low, and for individual countries and regions - negative. Or in other words - the economic and social rifts in the community are widening. From these starting points, a comparative analysis of some key indicators for the EU and the statistical regions of NUTS-2 level classification was conducted.
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This research presents the temporal development of the MFF negotiations for the period 2014-2020. The procedures for the adoption of legislative proposals and the parties involved in the negotiation process are reflected. Attention is focused on the three phases of the negotiations for the adoption of the MFF (explanatory, negotiation and final) and the time in which they take place. The purpose of the MFF regulation, the types of annual expenditure (for commitments and payments), the types of expenditure ceilings and the margin on budget lines are clarified.
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The strategic goal for political consolidation has been outlined in the course of the contemporary crisis in the European Monetary Union. It can be realized only in parallel with a fiscal and banking union. The first problem is about the frames – European Union or the monetary union. It turns out that the optimal solution is intergovernmental agreement within the European Union. Creating a fiscal and banking union requires submitting of powers from national to European level in extremely important and sensitive for national politics areas. As a member of the European Union and a country obliged to join the monetary union, Bulgaria is a part of these processes and the attention should be turned to every detail in the process of realizing the strategic goals.
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Six years after Bulgaria's accession to the EU, the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy cannot make significant progress in terms of improving its position in comparison with other economies in the world. This has been going in parallel with the implementation of the largest program for stimulating Bulgarian competitiveness, which aims at government policies and priorities to be practically implemented in specific programs and projects. The question of why this is happening has many possible answers: from the late start of programs - to the inability to find the right companies and sectors. This report attempts to offer a new reading of the Bulgarian government's approach by outlining its main features that lead to a lack of sustainability and to the transmission of the positive effects of encouraging enterprises on the protection of their environment, which would lead to gradual clustering. The latter has acquired axiomatic power to achieve modern competitiveness.
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This report examines the prospects discussed for the future development of the European Union in the context of two theoretical concepts of international economic integration - the federalist approach and intergovernmental cooperation. The advantages and disadvantages of the two models are identified, intersections are sought and the extent to which the EU has reached in practice in their application is analyzed. Considering the deepening of the EU integration in a direction towards the establishment of supranational bodies to overcome the effects of the economic crisis and to achieve a new impetus in the struggle for world leadership and competitiveness, the ideas (respectively projects) for the implementation of Banking and Fiscal Union on EU level are analyzed.
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This paper discusses the importance of the climate change mitigation measures in the context of the business entities. The author reviews the significance of the climate change and the consequences it poses to the socio-economic systems, outlines the growing importance of the green economy, its low-carbon characteristics, efficient and sustainable growth requirements. As a conclusion, the article suggests that the climate change measures offer new income sources or market opportunities for the non-industrial entities such as those from the banking sector, in the consultancy field which main goal is to mintage the human footprint on the environment.
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This article presents the main concepts set out in the EU’s 2050 low-carbon economy roadmap. The ways and measures by which the Union can build a secure and competitive low-carbon energy sector are outlined. The necessity for an integrated European energy policy and for the preparation of a long-term EU strategy for the implementation of the recommendations as defined in the Roadmap is highlighted. A specific project has been identified that will make a significant contribution to the EU's idea of a low-carbon economy - the DESERTEC solar park in the Sahara Desert. The benefits not only for the EU but also for the EUMENA region of implementing this large energy project are summarized.
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This publication presents the main results of the research project "International Competitiveness of Export-Oriented Industries in Bulgaria", funded by the state budget from the Fund "UNWE Research", implemented during the period December 2009 - December 2011. The goal of this project is to analyze and assess the international competitiveness of the export-oriented industries in Bulgaria and to propose recommendations at the macro-, meso- and micro-level for its increase. The study utilizes a wide range of general scientific and specific methods for assessing the international competitiveness of export-oriented industries in Bulgaria. The SWOT analysis has a central place to present the main competitive advantages and disadvantages of the industries and the challenges they face. The main sources of statistical information are the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria and the Eurostat. For the implementation of the project objectives a special questionnaire has been developed, distributed in the 6 planning regions among managers of companies from the identified export-oriented industries.
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The process of European Union (EU) enlargement following the accession of Bulgaria and Romania will go towards the accession of Western Balkan countries. Region of the Western Balkans is consisted of six countries. Some of these countries have the status of the candidate country (Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro) while Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has the status of potential candidate, along with Serbia and Albania. Subject of this paper represent an analysis of trade aspects of the relations between BiH and the EU since EU is the most important trade partner of BiH. In addition, the subject of this paper will include an overview of the signing and establishment of CEFTA Agreement between countries in the region because the membership in this free trade zone represents one of the important steps towards EU membership. The goal of this paper is to empirically investigate how the BiH’s products are represented on the EU market and vice versa, what is the structure of its import and export, and in this context, what are the possible problems. Also, our goal is to analyze the possible future improvements for BiH in the context of trade relations with the EU. In the first part of the paper we will briefly provide basic indicators of BiH economy, as well as some indicators of its integration in the global market. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the analysis of foreign trade policy of BiH with the emphasis on the free trade agreements concluded on regional level with CEFTA countries, and free trade agreement concluded with EU by signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement. In the third part we will present the real flows of trade between the EU and BiH. The importance of the EU as a foreign trade partner of BiH will be pointed out. By the analysis of the volume, value and structure of import and export with the EU we will identify the difficulties, but also the advantages that BiH has in trade relations with EU.
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The European Union is the largest donor of financial funds in Albania. Financial support provided by this bloc of countries has been available since the early 1990s and continues to grow year-on-year basis. Financial assistance provided by the European Union is a key pillar of support for the implementation of the obligations arising from the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA). Its goal is to support Albania in the integration process, aimed at strengthening the rule of law and stabilizing democracy, establishing European standards, and the country's economic and social development. The support of the European Union can be divided into three main stages, as presented in this paper.
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The strategic goal for the Republic of Bulgaria after its accession to the European Union (EU) is the adoption of the euro and full membership in the EMU. The sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone (EU) has pushed EMU enlargement issues into the background and has seriously affected the motivation of countries with a derogation. This report aims to present the progress made in the nominal and real convergence between Bulgaria and the EU in the period 1999-2010. In terms of real convergence, a comparison was made between the performance of Bulgaria and other countries with a derogation from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). An assessment of the impact of the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone on the process of Bulgaria's accession to EMU is also presented.
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This article explores the cohesion policy of the European Union which is the second most important common policy after the Common Agricultural Policy. The financial resources allocated for the agricultural sector reached 65% of the EU’s multiannual financial framework prior to 1988. During the latest programming period this amount has dropped to 40% while the expenses for cohesion have risen to 84% (EUR58,3 billion annually) from the 2006-2009 budget. Author discusses the economic and social effects from the cohesion and outlines financial instruments which are aimed at supporting the cohesion through the EU budget.
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The article discusses the significance of the cohesion policy in its role to support and foster development among the EU regions where social and economic disparities are strongly expressed. Author reviews the cohesion policy in the context of the Bulgarian institutional mechanisms and experience. Empirical data on the progress of the payments under the national operational programmes is provided. The paper names factors forming the present trends in the absorption of the EU funds in Bulgaria, outlines improvements and suggests steps to be taken to further enhance the national performance regarding better utilization of the available financial resources.
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After the latest accessions of new member states, the EU budget reform is one of the biggest challenges that the EU should face. Discussions on the EU budget provide enough evidence to conclude that there is a substantial gap between the budget and current and future needs of integrated EU. The main objective of this paper is to identify shortcomings of the present EU budget and to explore possible ways of its reform. The main research question is: Can the EU budget respond to the needs of deepening and broadening of the integration process? Furthermore, through the analysis of characteristics of the present EU budget, characteristics that obstruct the EU integration are set aside. Finally, paper identifies possible ways of the EU budget reform and gives recommendations for better usage of the EU’s own resources in order to fulfill the set objectives.
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This report aims to examine Bulgaria's export competitiveness in the context of the country's full membership in the EU. This was achieved through an analysis of the dynamics of the value and volume of Bulgarian exports, its diversification in terms of markets and product structure, as well as the factor intensity and technological complexity of our exports to the EU. The obtained results testify that there is yet low export competitiveness of Bulgaria and significant lag when referred to comparable with us countries such as Hungary and Slovakia, and by some indicators, Romania. This is largely due to the relatively low-tech, unfavourable and strategically unpromising export specialization of our economy. Therefore, the state policy aimed at stimulating the export competitiveness should have the long-term goal of improving Bulgaria's position in the international division of labour.
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For the first time since 1985, the title of ECoC for 2021 had been won by two cities being so close from a geographical point of view. It is a great opportunity for Timișoara and Novi Sad to shape together a region of culture and, meanwhile, to boost cooperation at European and international level. Sustainability is also about a cultural dimension, which has to do with cultural diversity, the cultural vibrancy of a place, cooperation and with preserving and promoting cultural heritage. The purpose of this paper is to identify cultural mechanisms, tools and models that support sustainability in a cross-border region, in the context of ECoC programme. The ultimate goal is to make the local population from Timișoara and Novi Sad surroundings aware of the cultural diversity in Europe and to increase cooperation between the two neighbouring countries.
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Robert Schuman’s call from 1958 for a community of peoples in freedom, equality, solidarity and peace and which is deeply rooted in Christian basic values comes to mind when looking at the contemporary European stage today, to the phases of changes and challenges Europe is going through. A paradoxical Europe may appear to one’s sight, a civilization that lost track of itself and knows no longer what it stands for, swept in various crises, culminating with a crisis of identity manifesting itself at different levels, including the economic and political ones. The question of the European identity seems to have aquired a more complex dimension with the efforts to formulate a Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe (2004) but also in the context of the enlargement that brought with itself new challenges and intensified the struggle to integrate different religious and secular communities. This reveals once again that providing an answer to the question ‘What is Europe?’ is still provocative for the 21st century Europe. A heir of the Greek, Roman and Judeo-Christian heritage, contemporary Europe seems to be in a state of confusion when it comes to recognizing its religious roots.
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