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Područno ustrojstvo u Republici Hrvatskoj, problemi i perspektiva

Author(s): Nives Kopajtich-Škrlec / Language(s): Croatian

The article reviews the territorial setup of the Republic of Croatia since the transition to the new local government system based on rights, obligations and self-autonomy of local and regional governments, established in 1992, until today. What has been constantly announced since 1992 to today, are the reforms and shifts in the local government setup which would enable more quality provision of public services and performance of all tasks within the local government scope of autonomy, as well as the abandonment of these plans and intentions. The fact is that since local government has been introduced in Croatia, much progress and movements have been seen even on the territory that had long been considered as unperspective. On the other hand, the fact remains that a certain number of municipalities truly does not have any perspective at all. Some open questions are still present - what are the next steps, in what direction should the reduction of the number of municipalities go, should the number of municipalities be reduced and municipalities be adjoined to the cities, and what would be the effects of such actions. Regardless of the consent of proffesionals and politicans and their general commitment to reforms, the basic question is how to make and lead municipalities to cooperate and establish joint administrative bodies; and concentrate and unite their potentials for the common good, since mere reduction of their number will not solve their problems, but on the contrary, multiply them.

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Natural Gas – an Energy Necessity for Macedonia: Overview of the Macedonian Energy Potential

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

Despite the growing importance of Southeast Europe (SEE) in the new map of natural gas pipelines, the natural gas as an energy resource is underused in the wider region of SEE. In Macedonia only one percent of the total energy consumption comes from natural gas and there is also a lack of developed infrastructure for large scale gasification of the industrial capacities and the households. With this, Macedonia and other countries of the region risk increasing their energy dependencies to imported energy sources, which is unsustainable on long term. Taking the above said as a starting point, this report advocates the stance that in the time of energy crisis, price turbulences on the global oil market, and electricity import dependence, natural gas is the most favorable energy option for achieving long-term energy stability and sustainability in SEE and specifically in Macedonia. By giving a comprehensive analysis of the natural gas market in Macedonia as a case study for the region of SEE, we aim to underline the importance of the natural gas for the energy future of the country and the region.

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Progress in the Europeanization of the Security Sector in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia

Author(s): Foto Duro,Arjan Dyrmishi,Magdalena Lembovska,Florian Qehaja,Fjolla Raifi,Mentor Vrajolli / Language(s): English

The EU aspiration pushed the Western Balkan states towards wide-range reforms, and the issue of security sector in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia is one of the main issues where many international external actors have been broadly included. Since both NATO and EU memberships are inter-related in 2003 NATO and EU decided to work on a joint strategic approach for security and stability for the region. The main focus of external influences in reforming the security system are NATO and EU membership focused on Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) and Visa Liberalization process. While NATO highly focuses on defense and military reform, the efforts of EU institutions present in these countries are focused in governance issues and police reform. As the three countries expressed political will to enter the process of integration, the EU has offered and been involved in the process of as we refer to in this paper “europeanization” of security structures, and governance. EU however tends to see the security sector from a broader perspective which often implies the vast number of areas under the "rule of law" framework. Hence it is case with this publication which evaluates hollistically the progress made in the different segments of rule of law of the three countries of the region.

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"The Enlargement of the EU to Balkans" – Policy Reports that shaped the policies and debate on European integration of Balkans

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

Today, western Balkans states are a long way from where they were at the beginning of the decade. The Stabilization and Association process, which has just started in 2000, is almost completed as all the states have negotiated and signed the Stabilization and Association Agreements with the EU, the EU is negotiating visa liberalization agreements and all states are entitled to the new pre-accession financial assistance IPA, designed to address the strategic needs of the region. This progress, apart from the persistent efforts of the national governments and the EU administration, is also partly due to the visionary policy reports and recommendations of people and organizations working on the Balkans. We are convinced that their commitment to the region and the ability to look beyond the limitations of the immediate political context for lasting solutions makes them an irreplaceable item on every reading-list of both those who wish to study the Balkan region and those who aim to produce similar such reports addressing the present dilemmas and challenges for the western Balkan states. “The Enlargement of the EU to Balkans” is a compilation of four reports on the Balkans published since 2000. They all concern the Balkan region and its prospects for the future – away from violent legacies towards peace, stability and European integration. As such, they are a valuable source for all those interested in and studying the recent political developments in this region, for these reports give an overview of the challenges that Balkans states faced on the start of their journey to European integration. We hope this collection of reports will become part of the curricula of schools and departments where Balkan politics, history and EU integration are taught. From the multitude of reports, books and other works written on the Balkans, the reports that follow were not chosen accidentally. Rather, we aimed to include the most influential reports, those which had the greatest impact on the EU and international community’s approach towards the Balkans, those with the most valuable recommendations concerning the features of EU’s policy towards the Balkans. The results of in-depth field research and analysis of diplomatic relations in the region, these reports provided the most credible assistance to the European and other policy-makers when faced with the dilemma ‘how to deal with postconflict post-Milosevic Balkans?’ By publishing their reports again, we also like to pay tribute to those people and organizations that made their most for Balkans to be found in EU integration map.

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№217. The European Council Summit and the Political Economics of the EMU Crisis

Author(s): Cezary Wójcik,Christian Fahrholz / Language(s): English

Roger Ailes, a former advisor to Ronald Reagan ,recalls in his book an intriguing practice of the ancient Romans: when they finished building a bridge or an arch, they enforced accountability by placing the engineer in charge beneath the construction when the scaffolding was removed. If the edifice did not hold, he was the first to know. We do not follow such drastic practices these days in Europe, but with some European economies shaking and the Greek sovereign debt crisis still not over, the architecture of the euro area has been certainly come under severe stress. Unfortunately, the 28-29 October2010 European Council Summit has not made this architecture much safer.

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№227. A Renewed Political Deal for Sustainable Growth within the Eurozone and the EU

Author(s): Richard E. Baldwin,Giuliano Amato,Stefano Micossi,Daniel Gros,Pier Carlo Padoan / Language(s): English

Under current policies, the European Union will only be able to pull itself out of low growth and high unemployment very slowly – too slowly to exclude dangerous economic and political assaults on the Union’s continuing cohesion and viability. What is needed is a substantial increase in the EU output growth rate, which has been persistently low for too long a time. With low growth, sovereign debt sustainability in a number of member states will remain uncertain, possibly leading to renewed strains in financial markets and rising spreads that will aggravate the costs of budgetary consolidation.

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№234. The Case for ‘more Single Market’

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

With the Commission’s consultation period on the Single Market Act (European Commission, 2010) nearing its end, it is high time for the EU to get its act together. Priority should immediately be restored to theissue of the Single Market, and EU powers to deepen and widen the internal market, where economically justifiable, ought to be utilized to the full. This CEPS Policy Brief explains why.

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№236. Spillovers from the Arab Revolts: Is Armenia next in line?

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

The recent cycle of revolutions in Arab countries has caught policy-makers and experts off guard. The decades-long kleptocracy, systemic corruption, economic stagnation and censorship are merely some of named causes accounting for the shake-up of the old order in Europe’s Southern Neighbourhood. The choices that citizens were deprived of making through the ballot box have been accomplished by taking to the streets. Policy makers and analysts are contemplating the possible scenarios for the countries that have finally brought down their dictators.

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№258. Agreement needed on liquidity provision to restore confidence in the eurozone

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

Some eighteen months after the first Greek rescue (May 2010), there is little doubt that the multiple attempts at crisis management in the eurozone have failed to restore confidence. Indeed, following each round of emergency measures agreed by the eurozone summits, matters have turned for the worse (see Figure 1 for the widening spreads, over the German Bund, for sovereign borrowing in the eurozone). At the time of writing, contagion has spread beyond Spain and Italy to the core sovereigns, with France close to losing its triple A rating and even Germany experiencing partial failure in a Bund auction on November 23rd.

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№259. Stronger economic governance

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

One positive effect of the euro crisis is that it has provoked Europe to engage in a profound debate on the form and degree of federalism it needs. Even if, until recently, many would have argued that Europe is not a federal state, the EU already has many elements of such a governance model in place, of which European citizens are hardly aware. Many competences are uniquely attributed to the EU.

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Central Asia and the Global Economic Crisis

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

In 2007 the EU published a Strategy for a New Partnership with Central Asia. In its initial stages the EU focused on developing new forums for dialogue with the Central Asian countries, and received some criticism for inadequate substantive actions. This Policy Brief argues that the current global economic crisis does not alter the priorities of the EU Strategy, but it does require the EU to stick to existing obligations and also provides an opportunity for fresh initiatives to better achieve the Strategy’s fundamental goals. A striking feature of the five Central Asian countries’ economic strategies is that they followed divergent paths after becoming independent in 1991. Despite strong similarities in culture, history and economic structure, their transitions from Soviet central planning ranged from the most rapidly liberalising (the Kyrgyz Republic) to the most non-reforming (Turkmenistan) of all former Soviet republics.

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The EU Education Initiative for Central Asia Five Years On: Lessons Learnt?

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

Over the past 20 years, developments in Central Asia’s education system have been mixed. The private education sector has been growing, especially in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with fully-equipped classrooms and the application of best teaching practices. In the public sector, however, the general trend continues to point to a lack of financial and human resources, insufficient access to up-to-date materials and modern infrastructure, the politicisation of education, and everincreasing corruption. The sporadic reforms initiated by Central Asian governments have sometimes even worsened the situation – Turkmenbashi’s regressive educational policies are the clearest example of this. Half of the region’s population is under 30 years of age, which means that about 25 million people are directly affected by the drastically degrading quality of education. If the European Union (EU) is serious about supporting educational reform in Central Asia, it needs to take local conditions into account when dealing with the challenges outlined above.

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Czech Presidency overwhelmed by challenges: Is Central Asia one of them?

Author(s): Jos Boonstra,Ona Juknevičienė,Aibek Tilebaliev,Gulnura Toralieva,Anvar Kamolidinov,Charlote Adriaen / Language(s): English

Every member state that chairs the EU Council must strike a balance between the policies it wants to develop and the immediate crises that need to be dealt with. The active French EU chairmanship served to increase the visibility of France and its president, which also helped the EU to be seen as a more active and influential player on the international stage. However, this has not made matters easier for the Czechs, who are at the EU helm until mid-2009. Whereas Sarkozy’s main immediate crises were of a financial nature, preceded by the August Russia-Georgia war, the Czechs have already been confronted with two major EU foreign policy matters from the outset: the Israeli Gaza strip offensive and the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute. The Czech team may well end up continually dealing with one crisis after another instead of pushing ahead with further European integration, increasing the effectiveness of the Brussels institutions and developing foreign and energy policies.

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Central Asia 2030...

Author(s): Jos Boonstra,Alain Délétroz,Marlène Laruelle,Nargis Kassenova,Shairbek Juraev / Language(s): English

Novels, academic literature and cinema all tend to take a bleak view in forecasting the future. Futuristic novels from the 1920s and 1930s, such as We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, paint a grim picture of a unified, all-encompassing state that controls people’s lives and thoughts: the perfect authoritarian state. In the 1990s, in the less fantastic, more realistic field of academic international policy, Samuel Huntington predicted a clash of civilisations and Francis Fukuyama’s more upbeat The End of History? prophesied that liberal democracy would become the main form of government in the world, ending ideological competition. This would bring an end to history, leaving only events rather than indepth developments. Meanwhile, Hollywood cinema during the last decade has further developed the disaster genre. More movies have as their central theme devastating climate change, the global spread of deadly viruses or nuclear catastrophe. With the possible exception of Fukuyama, who later toned down his hopes for the triumph of democracy, few of these works have presented positive outlooks on the future.

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№07 A Decade after EULEX: A New Approach to Improve the Rule of Law in Kosovo

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

This report evaluates and identifies possible paths and areas for improvement for rule of law and judicial development under the EU’s planned flagship initiative and corresponding support mechanisms. The analysis and recommendations are based on an assessment of the current state of the rule of law and judicial institutions and of the progress and pitfalls of EULEX. As it prepares to fully dismantle, domestic institutions must prepare to take the driver’s seat, while collaborating early on with the EU to determine the implementation plan for new initiatives.

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Barometrul electoral al municipiului Drobeta Turnu Severin

Author(s): Bruno Stefan / Language(s): Romanian

The survey was conducted between September 4-6, 2020 on a sample of 1027 adults living in the city. He measured how the population perceives the involvement of the mayor’s office in various administrative issues, trust in local political leaders, voting intentions in local elections, the perception of local party organizations.

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Barometru politic national

Author(s): Bruno Stefan / Language(s): Romanian

The survey was conducted on July 17-23, 2019 on 1128 selected subjects from 114 urban and rural localities in all counties of Romania. He measured confidence in political leaders, voting intentions, comparisons between candidates.

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Barometru politic național

Author(s): Bruno Stefan / Language(s): Romanian

Survey conducted between March 15-20, 2019 on a national sample of 1144 people. He measured the intention to vote in the European elections, the attitude towards political parties, trust in the main political leaders, the degree of information about political games and events, the attitude towards the European Union, towards Romania’s foreign policy, towards doctrines and political values.

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Barometrul preelectoral al Municipiului Oltenița

Author(s): Bruno Stefan / Language(s): Romanian

The survey was conducted between 1-3 February 2020 on a sample of 521 adults living in the city. He measured how the population perceives the involvement of the mayor’s office in various administrative issues, trust in local political leaders, voting intentions in local elections, the perception of local party organizations.

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EAP Think Bridge - № 2019-11 - "ZE" Time in Ukraine

Author(s): Richard Giragosian,Sevinç Aliyeva,Lasha Tughushi,Natalia Sterkul,Sergiy Gerasymchuk,Maksym Koriavets,Yuri Tsarik / Language(s): English

The stunning victory of comedian Vladimir Zelensky at the presidential elections in Ukraine demonstrated a keen request for leaders from outside the old system. Without actually seeing any program of the candidate, or any names on the team, 74% of Ukrainians still voted for him, showing that they are ready to support anyone, as long as it’s a new person. This yet again made the neighbors worry: can such a public request be exported? In his very first winning speech, Zelensky addressed the post-Soviet republics, where leaders in power have not changed for decades: “Look, it is possible!” Whether the new president will live up to high expectations and receive the majority seats in parliament, Sergey Gerasimchuk analyzed. The permanent president of Belarus does not seem to be losing ground. He is fully preparing for the elections scheduled for next year, flirts with the pro-Russian electorate yet again and talks about changes to the constitution. However, the results of the Ukrainian vote have already forced the Belarusians to worry over economic reasons. The echoes of the Ukrainian elections reached Georgia, causing verbal altercations of ex-President Saakashvili with Russian President Putin. In Moldova, new leaders don’t seem to gain power so far as dividing portfolios and establishing the majority in the newly elected parliament is not yet possible. So the country risks getting stuck in an ever-deepening crisis. But in Armenia, the same anti-establishment new leader has been in power for almost a year now - continuing to fight corruption, acing clashes with former companions, and showing his temper, perhaps, for the first time. Over the past year and a half, the Eastern Partnership and partner states have made significant progress in harmonizing digital markets with the EU. What has already been done and what new prospects in this area open up after several important events for the region, Maksym Koryavets studies. These and other important news of April in the Eastern Partnership analyzed in our monthly reviews of domestic and foreign policy, as well as the economies of the countries of the region. //// CONTENT: Armenia: Confrontation in parliament over the challenges of business & politics // Azerbaijan: Domestic calm, international activity // Belarus: The path of mobilization // Georgia: 55 injured in clashes against hydroelectric power plant // Moldova: Stalemate — looking for the way out // Ukraine: The election is over, the economic and hybrid war with Russia is not

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