Eurobarometer poll on fraud and fight against fraud
This survey analyses public awareness of fraud in general and fraud against the
EU and its budget in the 15 Member States (EU-15) and 13 accession and candidate
countries (CC-13). The results show that respondents are particularly concerned
about corruption (55% in the EU-15 and 69% in the CC-13), fraud relating to
quality of food and agricultural products (46% in the EU-15 and 57% in the
CC-13) and commercial fraud (39% in the EU-15 and 58% in the CC-13). Citizens
are more preoccupied by wrongdoing in national/local governments and
institutions (36% in the EU-15), than about wrongdoing in EU institutions. As
concerns fraud against the EU, more than half the respondents disagree with the
statement that fraud against the EU and its budget happens very rarely. There is
a very wide consensus that defrauding the EU and its budget is harmful both for
the vast majority of citizens who are honest and for the national economy. EU
citizens trust the police force to fight against fraud, while citizens from
accession and candidate countries look more to the EU itself. Both groups agree
that fighting fraud should be a political priority and the EU has a role to
play. However, a majority of citizens feels fairly badly informed about the
fight against fraud against the EU and its budget.
News Date: January 14th 2004
Full information:
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Source: European Commission
Nations in Transit reports online The report on nations in transit published within the Freedom House
Foundation’s publication Nations in Transit: Civil Society, Democracy, and
Markets in East, Central Europe and the Newly Independent States is now on-line.
The report covers 2002. The link is in PDF format and you have to have Acrobat
reader to view it:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/nattransit.htm Nations in Transit,
published annually by Freedom House, is the only comprehensive, comparative,
multidimensional study focusing on 27 former Communist states.
Employment Share of employment in Knowledge-intensive services in the Acceding
Countries still below EU average (7/11/2003)
In 2002 there were 163 million people employed in the EU, of which 7.4% were
employed in high tech and medium-high tech manufacturing and 33.3% in
knowledge-intensive services (KIS). Employment in KIS is growing strongly in the
EU, with an annual average growth rate of 3.1% during the 1997-2002 period. High
tech and medium-high tech manufacturing grew, but more slowly, at an annual
average of 0.9% over the same period. Looking at the Acceding Countries,
employment in high tech and medium-high tech manufacturing ranged between 1.1%
and 9.2% of total employment. Proportions for KIS varied from 22.8% to 30.9%.
Annual average growth rates of employment for the period 1997-2002 varied
strongly among countries in both high tech and medium-high tech manufacturing
(from -10.7% to +25.4%) and KIS (from -1.0% to +8.0%). At regional level, 13 out
of the 20 leading regions in 2002 in high tech and medium-high tech
manufacturing were in Germany, while the United Kingdom dominated in KIS, with 6
of the 20 top regions. This information, and more, comes from a report issued
today by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, drawn
from the latest Community Labour Force Survey (CLFS) data.
Contribution to a compendium with the working title: Path-dependent Development
in the Western Balkans - the Impact of Privatization
The question for the endogenous factors that account for failure or success of
various attempts at institutional change in the former socialist countries still
seeks an answer. Referring to the concepts of institutional economics research
on transformation has been very much focused on comparative research of
socialist legacies as a key to the understanding of the highly differentiated
outcome of building market economies in different post-socialist settings.
Despite of structural communities resulting from the common socialist heritage,
regional, historical, and cultural peculiarities of every country have a crucial
impact on shape and speed of post- socialist development. Thus pathdependency of
economic development is a starting point to identify and explain the differing
consequences of the privatization processes implemented in the former socialist
economies.
The compendium aims at accessing choice and success of privatization methods in
the Western Balkans, i.e. Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and
Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia with respect to the countries' attributes. The
impacts of privatization on - among others - enterprise performance and
efficiency, private entrepreneurship, competitiveness, on financial markets, the
role of the state, and macroeconomic data in the countries of the Western
Balkans should be related to the countries' distinct features. Following this
approach, the compendium has the purpose to give an insight into the path-
dependency of the success of privatization methods.
Paper Submission Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words, clearly
indicating the purpose and the nature of the scientific contribution of your
final paper. All submissions will be reviewed and the author of each abstract
will be notified of the result, by email. The length of final papers is not
limited, but authors are encouraged to keep their papers within a 20-page limit.
All sources used should be fully quoted. Citation follows the "Journal of
Comparative Economics". For Details see
www.elsevier.nl
Important Dates and Deadlines
- Abstract submission deadline: December 20th, 2003
- Abstract acceptance notification: January 31st, 2004
- Paper submission deadline: April 30th, 2004
Transition The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development points to the high
growth level of the economies of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe but
points to the "danger of marginalising some countries."
Roms With the enlargement of the EU on 1st May 2004 more than one million Roms
will become EU citizens : 600,000 from Hungary, 500,000 from Slovakia,
250-300,000 from the Czech Republic, 50,000 from Poland and 10,000 from
Slovenia. In addition to this Romania has between 1.8 and 2.5 million Roms and
Bulgaria 700-800,000 according to a survey by the UN development programme (UNDP)
who also mentions that only one third of them have completed primary education.
In collaboration with the Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit of UNHCR, the
feature section of the April 2004 issue will focus on refugee and IDP
livelihoods.
In keeping with FMR's objective of publishing practice-oriented articles,
authors should give prominence to policy implications, lessons learned and
recommendations for replication of good practice. We invite submissions of
articles focusing on:
- the relative effectiveness of different livelihoods interventions, including,
for example, support to refugee agriculture, microfinance programmes,
income-generating projects, vocational training, food for work etc.
- examples of effective and ineffective practice in relation to the promotion of
refugee livelihoods
- listening to the livelihoods needs/aspirations of refugees/IDPs
- potential for enhanced inter-agency partnership in the promotion of refugee
livelihoods
- the extent to which UNHCR and other actors have contributed to or constrained
the establishment of refugee livelihoods
- development of a methodology for the analysis, evaluation and monitoring of
refugee livelihoods
- issues of gender, age and physical capacity (including the impact of the
HIV/AIDS on refugee livelihoods)
- the relationship between refugee livelihoods and UNHCR's protection mandate
The lifestyles and personal aspirations of young
people in the 10 acceding countries (the countries due to join the EU on 1 May
2004 (Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Czech
Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia)) and in the three candidate countries
(Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey) are relatively similar to those of young people
in the 15 present Member States. These are the findings of a Eurobarometer
survey of 10,000 young people conducted in the spring of 2003 for the European
Commission's Education and Culture Directorate-General. The survey also shows
that youngsters in these countries have different views from youngsters in the
present EU on issues affecting society, as well as different expectations of the
EU.
News Date: October 10th 2003
Full information:
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Source: European Commission
Commission Autumn Economic Forecasts 2003 2005 for the euro area, the European
Union and the Acceding and Candidate countries
The weak economic performance observed in the euro area and EU economies at the
end of 2002 continued throughout the first half of this year. Consequently, for
a third consecutive year, growth is likely to disappoint: the average growth
rate is expected to be a mere 0.4% in 2003 in the euro area (0.8% in the EU).
However, with accommodative macroeconomic policy conditions, continued
disinflation, supportive financial conditions, progress in structural reforms,
and a reduction in geopolitical uncertainty, the confidence of economic agents
is returning and the international environment is improving. In this context,
the momentum for recovery is expected to pick up in the second half of 2003 and
to gather pace throughout 2004. A rebound to average growth rates of 1.8% for
the euro area and 2% for the EU is projected next year, approaching 2.5% in
2005. This is underpinned by a recovery in consumer expenditure, supported by
growing external demand, and a consequent recovery in investment. Despite this
projected recovery, the protracted period of sluggish growth has taken its toll
on the performance of the labour market and employment growth is expected to be
sluggish, registering only 0.3% in 2004 and a somewhat better 0.8% in 2005.
News Date: October 29th 2003
Full information:
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Source: European Commission
The South-East European Studies Programme (SEESP) at the University of
Oxford is soliciting proposals for its newly launched Occasional Paper Series.
We will consider a wide array of subjects related to the social, political and
economic developments in the area. Of particular interest are submissions
comparing individual countries, subregions in wider South-East Europe (the
Western Balkans, the Eastern Balkan accession states, Turkey, Greece, and
Cyprus) as well as those juxtaposing South-East Europe with other regional
groupings. Both established academics and researchers who have recently
completed or are in the last stages of their PhD are eligible. The accepted
papers will be published on the SEESPs website and printed in hard copy.
Selected contributors will also be invited to present their research in Oxford.
Gender
Equality in Central & Eastern Europe and CIS UNDP Publication
The UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre announces the publication of: Drafting
Gender-Aware Legislation: How to promote and protect gender equality in Central
and Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Printed copies of this publication are already pouched to UNDP Country offices
in the region, so you may contact Information Officers in your respective
countries soon, but kindly note that it has been also placed on-line, at the
RBEC Virtual Gender library,
http://gender.undp.sk
This publication is designed as a handbook which might be equally useful for
lawyers and policy-makers as well as civil society advocates and activists.
Its purpose is to provide practical, regionally specific guidance in expertise
of legislation from gender perspective.
Comprised of four parts, the handbook provides:
1) a comparative overview of gender-aware legislation and practice in the
Eastern and Central Europe and the CIS region
2) a detailed checklists for reference when analyzing legislation and its
implementation
3) a reference guide of selected international standards, good practice and
points to additional resources.
We hope that this handbook will help in raising awareness about international
standards and promote equality in drafting, implementing and monitoring
legislation, and appreciate it if you could widely share it with your partners.
Questions and comments on this publication are most welcome. Soon, the Russian
version of the handbook will be available at the same URL. http://gender.undp.sk
