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President’s bill on cooperation in local government for local and regional development and on amendments to certain laws presupposes the introduction of new forms of cooperation between local government units. These include associations and committees of local activity, teams of territorial cooperation conventions of the local government delegates at the province. Submitted proposals for new forms of cooperation of local government units should be assessed as interesting and innovative at the same time. Residents of local communities are expected even more than they were a dozen years ago to modernize the infrastructure, increase efforts to protect the environment, ensure public safety and order, as well as to guarantee a stable system of health care and education. Only municipalities that are financially and organizationally strong and that cooperate with each other will be raised by counties to better positions which consequently means development of the whole province. The recently adopted EU budget for 2014- 2020 may give us the last such opportunity to use EU funds even further for development of our local and regional communities.
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Coal is the primary energy source affecting Poland’s energy security. It is because deposits of this raw material are available in Poland. Unlike natural gas or oil reserves, which are limited in the country. The high cost of extracting Polish coal in comparison with coal prices on the world market has made it necessary to adopt Polish mining to functioning in market economy conditions. The paper presents the evolution of Polish government policy towards the activity of coal mines in the years 1990–2015. This article aims to present government policy on restructuring coal mining after 2015 and showing its effects. The stages of consolidation of the power industry with the mining industry are shown. The above issues are presented in the context of the European Union’s energy and climate policy, paying particular attention to the share of renewable energy sources in the energy and fuel balance and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
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Outline the possibilities offered by the application of the European Label of Governance Excellence at the municipal level for measurements of local democracy and good governance and whether it leads to the unification of practices or reporting specifics.
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The article presents the current regulations, circumstances, practices and policies with regard to integration of citizens of third countries who have been granted asylum in Bulgaria. First it presents the newly adopted National integration strategy 2014-2020. Then it explores several aspects of social inclusion – identity, accommodation, social benefits, work and education. Finally, it focuses on the implications for the region of Haskovo.
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As a consequence of the currency board introduced in 1997 Bulgaria became an island of fiscal stability among the South European countries. However this is an insufficient basis for further successful development of the country as a member of the European family. A decisive change in the socio-political model is needed if obstacles such as corrupt judicial system, organized crime, legal predictability, etc. are to be overcome. The problem is that the institutions set up as they are have no capability to make this change effectively given the impossibility for non- partisan vision. Therefore it is after the currency board that another “political board” should be introduced. By no means is it an interference of the European governing bodies in the governance of sovereign Bulgaria. The positive and realistic form of a “political board” is a “Strategic board” creating those complementary scenarios for the long- term European future of Bulgaria that the country itself is unable to produce alone and without which Bulgaria cannot make a decisive progress. The creation of such a joint Bulgarian-European board is proposed here in the shape of a Strategic club “Euxinograde” named after the 120 year old Black Sea governmental residence which symbolizes the Balkans and the wider Black Sea region location of Bulgaria. A European non-partisan long-term strategic framework for Bulgaria can break the vicious circle in which the country is suffocating. The principles on which the Club would be based as well as its design and structure are investigated.
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Undoubtedly, in the period 2001-2008 positive trends are observed in terms of the employment and the overall development of the labor market in Bulgaria. In order to make an objective assessment of the status and trends of employment, it is necessary to trace the impact on the labor market of the overall economic development, demographic trends and of course, policies implemented in relation to the employment. For this purpose it is more appropriate to use the main indicators introduced in the EES and in Bulgarian strategic and operational documents regarding the changes in the employment.
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The article analyses the alternative approaches and related indicators, that can be used for social policy evaluation. The thesis is that values and ideas for needed development of community are concealed behind the choice of method and indicators for evaluation. Therefore the evaluation purpose can be easily changed and instead of being used for policy process improvement it could serve the political completion. In this case the policy evaluation loses its rational character. If there is a politics of evaluation, we need a policy of evaluation.
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This study is an analysis on representative empirical data from two field surveys in Bulgaria (2006 and 2009) within the methodological framework of the European Social Survey (ESS) programme in comparison with other EU countries. Data and analysis show clear the reasons of Bulgarians to feel themselves “at the bottom” in a lot of criteria in respect of their self-estimations of well-being and quality of life, of satisfaction of life and the work of main national institutions. One of the basic reasons is the fact that for its people Bulgaria is “a low-trusted society” – in social and political meaning. There are a lot of conclusions on empirical data confirming the analysis.
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We adhere to the paradigm of “rule of law” and the concept of “good governance”, in particular, according to which public institutions not only act within the lawful limits but first and foremost protect the rights and interests of citizens in accordance to the law. Assuming Bulgaria is a society in transition we want to test empirically the extent to which it has broken away from the communist system, in which the state dominates over people. This empirical test has been carried out through a normative analysis of the articles and catches of two Bulgarian laws – the "State Administration Act" and "Civil Service Act"(literary “State Service Act”, in Bulgarian). The paper presents our major findings, which confirm the hypothesis that these two laws do not provide for a systemic social regulation because it would render a systemic social change. Such a qualitative change has not been pursued because the strong power of the centralized state has been endorsed to reform the Bulgarian society in an authoritative way. The half-way social changes, reflected in our normative acts, serve not the public interest but the ad hoc political task of transition.
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The administration of the national assembly and the principle of the division of the authorities.
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The issue of protection of personal data in religious communities will be subject of a significant change due to (EU) Regulation No. 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. The new EU regulation introduces an important mechanism that forces churches to develop an internal data protection law and an independent supervisory authority. In practice this means strengthening the constitutional right to privacy in the largest churches based on their internal institutions, but also involves a risk of subjecting many smaller religious communities to public scrutiny. Many doubts regarding Article 91 presented by Polish commentators specializing in the protection of personal data show how important this issue and the preparation of changes are for religious communities.
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The Austrian Supreme Court, in a similar way to the Polish Supreme Court, states that canon law rules governing church property are relevant in the field of acts of legal entities of the Catholic Church. Hence, the views and arguments presented in its judgements in cases concerning the management of ecclesiastical property are also important for Polish legal practice. Between 1959 and 2013 a number of judgements were issued. There were a variety of cases, starting from the sale of the immovable property, through leasing it, and ending with the sale of fishery rights and contract of employment. In relation to those events a number of relevant legal views were stated by the Austrian Supreme Court. It considered the meaning of the term “alienation” (in the strict and broad sense), the obligation of a judge to examine canon law requirements for managing ecclesiastical property, the relevance of the particular canon law, the possibility of giving consent required by canon law per facta concludentia and scope of proxy authorization to manage church property. The question of treating the lease as an alienation in terms of the Code of Canon Law has also been raised. The case-law deals with many problems associated with the application of canon law in practice and provides a number of arguments to the parties in possible court proceedings.
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The aim of this article is to present an analysis of the EU Court of Justice’s rulings of March 17th 2017, in the Samira Achbita vs. G4S Secure Solutions case (C–157/15) and the Asma Bougnaoui vs. Micropole case (C–188/15), in the context of the exercise of the freedom of thought, conscience and religion in situations involving contact with other entities. The problem of wearing a headscarf is presented with reference to the client’s freedom of belief and the company’s policy of religious and ideological neutrality. The article provides a critical view of the ruling due to the court’s failing to take into account the specific character of the freedom to express one’s religious beliefs. Special attention was paid to the question of religion, as one of grounds of discrimination being prohibited by Directive 2000/78/EC, as well as to the expression of religious, ideological or philosophical beliefs, and the problem of proselytism in the workplace.
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Thе current article discusses the need of public relations in the contemporary school and their use as a managment approach for sustaining the transparency and good image of any school – in front of its audience and the society in general.
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Over the last 24 years, political institutions have sought to advance Palestinian welfare and the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through channeling foreign aid. This essay, written initially as a capstone essay at the University of Texas at Austin, examines the impact of that aid, evaluating how its inflow has influenced Palestine’s economy, governance, physical security, and human security—pivotal variables affecting the conflict. Ultimately, this essay finds that Palestinian foreign aid has been ineffective, rather perpetuating conditions that prolong conflict: poverty, corruption, and terror. The essay’s findings should encourage policy makers, political bodies, and NGOs to refine and reconsider their aid projects.
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In the Polish reality, changes in the law are common, and in the case of tax law, this phenomenon is almost widespread. This situation means that entrepreneurs and other taxpayers are not able to apply these regulations in a correct manner in practice. Changes to the law carried out in the form of frequent amendments to the existing provisions make reading and understanding of the content of law and regulations difficult. A random way of introducing changes results in a decrease in the quality of the law, and sometimes even its internal contradiction. This situation results in issuing tax law ruling by tax authorities, which in similar circumstances have diametrically different interpretations. This causes an increase in the number of claims in administrative courts. The article presents the above-mentioned factors as the reason for the limited confidence of taxpayers both in the legal system and tax authorities. The changes that took place in the recent period were analysed. These changes should lead to greater stability of regulations and consequently growing confidence.
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