Communities → Regional Cooperation
- Assessing the Development Gap
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June 19, 2008 16:14
Current report aims to identify major existing gaps in the four socio-economic dimensions (economic, human, environmental, and institutional) and to reveal those gaps which could potentially hinder social and economic integration of neighbor states with the EU.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina - Meeting Copenhagen economic criteria for accession to the EU
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June 19, 2008 15:25
The primary focus of the research is on structural and institutional aspects facilitating or impeding functioning of a market economy in the BH and country's capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the EU.
- Duality of Power in the European Parliament
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June 18, 2008 16:47
This paper addresses the following question: Taking as decisional units national chapters of European political parties, is there a difference between a priori voting power of national groups in the case of “national” coordination of voting and in the case of “partisan” coordination of voting?
- Report on the Assessment of Public Perception Regarding the Process of European Integration and Implementation of EUMAP
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June 17, 2008 16:15
What we intend to do is to assess in what way the Action Plan meant something for the public opinion from Republic of Moldova (RM); for citizens of RM in the name of whom politicians and administrators assume public responsibilities and promise to serve their interests.
- Slovakia heads for the EU: what was accomplished and what lies ahead
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March 3, 2008 11:43
An account of the public debate on joining the EU and the main milestones and bottlenecks on the road to integration. The author describes the present and future actors in the debate and claims that there is a broad political concensus in favour of joining.
- Political and technical conditionality in Slovakia's accession into the OECD
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March 3, 2008 11:41
The article claims that doubts in the West about the Slovakian government’s commitment to democratic values are delaying its entrance to OECD, NATO and the EU. The author uses the OECD as a case study in examining the reasons for blocking Slovakia’s membership.
- The effects on international road freight transportation of the protectionist policies concerning the truck manufacturing industry in Belarus
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January 18, 2008 16:35
This paper discusses the protectionist policies concerning the truck manufacturing industry in Belarus and its effects on international road freight transportation.
- Untangling the maze of European Union funds to Bulgaria
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November 26, 2007 17:03
The paper concludes that Bulgaria is likely to benefit from large net inflows of resources of an average of 3.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007-09. In contrast, its fiscal position is expected to deteriorate by 1.6 percent of GDP on average in 2007-09 if no expenditure restructuring of the fiscal framework is carried out.
- Road infrastructure in Europe and Central Asia : does network quality affect trade ?
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November 26, 2007 17:00
The authors present a new database of minimum distance road routes connecting 138 cities in 27 countries across Europe and Central Asia. They use it to show that improved road network quality is robustly associated with higher intraregional trade flows.
- Is European integration bad news for developing countries? A comment on Hughes Hallett
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November 26, 2007 16:59
This article examines Mr. Hughes Hallett's article, "The Impact of EC-92 on Trade in Developing Countries", and challenges the reasoning of his views.
- Financing infrastructure in developing countries : lessons from the railway age
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November 26, 2007 16:58
In recent years suggestions for reforming the provision and financing of infrastructure services in developing countries have focused on private participation. This alternative to public financing is seen as a way both to minimize the inefficiencies of public administration and to avoid the need for external borrowing. If fact, for much of the nineteenth century, infrastructure projects were privately financed and built. This approach, however, did not obviate the need for government intervention and foreign capital. Because of the difficulties of assessing projects, investors were reluctant to commit their funds, and governments turned to subsidies and loan guarantees to encourage investment. Often, however, government intervention only replaced one set of problems with another. Investors with government-guaranteed loans had no incentive to monitor the firm's performance - a limitation that led to the diversion of funds and frustrated the public interest. This article draws out the implications of this experience for policymakers in developing countries today.
- Entering the Union : European accession and capacity-building priorities
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November 26, 2007 16:56
The authors examine the impact of trade facilitation on bilateral trade flows. They examine trade facilitation and capacity-building priorities in 12 countries in the Europe and Central Asia region-eight of the current members of the European Union: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, and three candidate members: Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey.
- Azerbaijan - Rail Trade and Transport Facilitation Project : environmental assessment
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November 26, 2007 16:55
The main project objective for Azerbaijan rail trade and transport facilitation is to improve sustainability of the capacity, competitiveness, profitability and efficiency of the Azeri Railways in particular along the transport corridors toward Georgia (East West Corridor).
- Costs of taxation and the benefits of public goods : the role of income effects
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November 23, 2007 13:18
The fact that raising taxes can increase taxed labor supply through income effects is frequently used to justify much lower measures of the marginal welfare cost of taxes and greater public good provision than indicated by traditional, compensated analyses. The authors confirm that this difference remains substantial with newer elasticity estimates, but show that either compensated or uncompensated measures of the marginal cost of funds can be used to evaluate the costs of taxation-and will provide the same result-as long as the income effects of both taxes and public good provision are incorporated in a consistent manner.
- Has Europe Lost its Heart
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May 17, 2007 10:25
This paper takes a politico-economic view of the link between enlargement and deepening.
- Transition and international integration in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
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May 15, 2007 09:54
This paper investigates the extent of integration of the transition economies into the world economy. We find that south-eastern Europe (SEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) trade significantly less with the world economy than the accession countries. We use a gravity model to explain why this is the case and conclude that the low quality of economic institutions in the CIS, and hence the high risks associated with trade, explain a considerable proportion of the “trade gap” compared to trade levels in industrialised countries. Moreover, the landlocked nature of many CIS countries (and hence high costs of transport and transit) is another reason for the lack of integration. In SEE these factors play a lesser role and the gravity model is unable to fully explain the lack of integration, which we suggest is a legacy of the region’s recent turbulent past. The paper suggests that a combination of improved market access to western markets and efforts to reduce trade and transit barriers within the region provide the best hope to increase economic integration with the world economy in the future.
- Bridge connecting Tajikistan and Afghanistan set to open
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May 15, 2007 09:54
This photo story is about opening a major new piece in Central Asia’s expanding transportation grid -- a bridge across the Pyanj River connecting Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The United States, which supplied most of the funding and know-how for the project, hopes the bridge will promote regional stabilization.
- Washington to make diplomatic push for greater economic integration in Central, South Asia
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May 15, 2007 09:54
The article deals with reasons and ways the United States will expend diplomatic energy in the coming months on promoting free trade among states in Central and South Asia.
- Central Asia: EU takes its case to Astana
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May 15, 2007 09:54
The article deals with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who took Europe’s case for stepped-up relations with Central Asia to the Kazakh capital today.
- Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan probe rapprochement
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May 15, 2007 09:54
The article focuses on new stage of relationships between Caspian Sea energy players Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan: after a decade of enmity they have announced an ambitious plan to bolster cooperation.
