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The paper analyses the level of fiscal decentralization (FD) in selected countries of European Union for 2014 year. The empirical analysis was based on the method of multicriteria decision-making. Method of Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) was used as framework for the analysis. In order to evaluate the different level of fiscal decentralization, the same analysis was applied to subsets of countries categorized into two groups - Central and Eastern Countries. The empirical results show that developed countries of European Union has higher degree of fiscal decentralization than countries of Eastern and Central Europe. These results show that local government of developed countries (such like Sweden or Denmark) has more power for financial solutions then developing countries (Estonia or Poland). Fiscal decentralization index in Lithuania is the lowest among 14 countries of European Union. Originality of this article that was used new fiscal decentralization index, which consists of 26 indicators.

The paper analyses the level of fiscal decentralization (FD) in selected countries of European Union for 2014 year. The empirical analysis was based on the method of multicriteria decision-making. Method of Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) was used as framework for the analysis. In order to evaluate the different level of fiscal decentralization, the same analysis was applied to subsets of countries categorized into two groups - Central and Eastern Countries. The empirical results show that developed countries of European Union has higher degree of fiscal decentralization than countries of Eastern and Central Europe. These results show that local government of developed countries (such like Sweden or Denmark) has more power for financial solutions then developing countries (Estonia or Poland). Fiscal decentralization index in Lithuania is the lowest among 14 countries of European Union. Originality of this article that was used new fiscal decentralization index, which consists of 26 indicators.

This article discusses the state of global/development education in twelve Central and Eastern European countries. It is based on key findings and recommendations obtained from national global education seminars which took place in 2009/2010 with support of the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. These seminars brought together different stakeholders with the aim to discuss the situation of global/development education (GE/DE) in the respective country and promote national policy recommendations and good practices. The reports have mainly been drafted by the NGDO Platforms in each respective country. (DIPF/Orig.) ; Der Beitrag befasst sich mit der aktuellen Lage des Globalen Lernens und der entwicklungspolitischen Bildungsarbeit in zwölf mittel- und osteuropäischen Ländern. Es werden dabei die Erkenntnisse und Empfehlungen von national durchgeführten Seminaren zum Globalen Lernen reflektiert, die mit Unterstützung des Nord-Süd-Zentrums des Europarates und der Europäischen Kommission 2009 und 2010 stattfanden. Die Seminare brachten unterschiedliche Stakeholder zusammen, um die Situation des Globalen Lernens und der entwicklungspolitischen Bildungsarbeit im jeweiligen Land zu diskutieren und nationale Strategien und good-practice Beispiele bekannt zu machen. Die jeweiligen Länderberichte wurden vor allem von NGO-Plattformen verfasst. (DIPF/Orig.)

Although old, the debate on whether government's intervention in economic activities can stimulate economic growth once again rose within the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. They have passed a harsh transition process, pressed on by the intention to join the EU, which involved accelerating the degree of economic freedom and fostering growth, respectively. Despite meaningful progresses, these countries have still a lot left to do in order to strengthen a solid legal system that is able to guarantee a liberal economic system, protected from political influence.

Diese Dissertation untersucht die Rolle der Massenmedien am Anfang der politischen Transformationsprozesse in den vormals realsozialistischen Staaten Mittel- und Osteuropas am Fallbeispiel der DDR und Ungarn in vergleichender Perspektive. Obwohl existierende Forschungsstudien von einem Zusammenhang zwischen Medien und Demokratisierung ausgehen, fehlten bislang empirisch überzeugende Nachweise über die Rolle der Medien auf die Demokratisierungsprozesse in der Region. Somit wurde ein zentraler – jedoch bislang weitgehend vernachlässigter – Aspekt der Transformationsforschung von dieser Arbeit aufgegriffen. Die Untersuchung konzentriert sich auf die Rolle der Printmedien in der Region, und geht insbesondere der Frage nach, ob die Medien eher als "Katalysator" der Demokratisierungsprozesse oder doch als "Mitläufer" zu betrachten sind. Anhand einer vergleichenden Inhaltsanalyse von jeweils zwei offiziellen Tageszeitungen in beiden Ländern zwischen 1989 und 1990, wird in der Arbeit gezeigt, dass die Medien eine aktive und positive Rolle während den unmittelbaren Transformationsprozessen hatten, also als "Katalysatoren" zu betrachten sind. Die Arbeit kommt zum Ergebnis, dass die Medien die jeweiligen Transformationen zwar selber nicht einzuleiten vermochten, sie jedoch die Ereignisse und die Dynamik, unmittelbar als die jeweilige "Wende" eingeleitet wurde, verstärkten. ; This thesis examines the role played by the mass media at the beginning of the political transformation of the former socialist states of central and eastern Europe, through a direct comparison of the GDR and Hungary. Although existing studies have suggested a casual relationship between the media and democratization, a lack of empirical evidence on the role of the media in democratization processes in the region still existed. Here, a central - but up to now largely neglected - aspect of the research on democratic transformation processes is thus analysed. The thesis attempts to answer the question of whether the media led or followed the democratization processes that were underway in the region by concentrating on print media. Through a comparative content analysis of two official newspapers in each country of analysis between 1989 to1990, it is suggested that the media assumed an active and positive role during the immediate transformation processes. Although the media were not able to initiate the respective transformations, they did act as a catalyst on the unfolding events as soon as the beginning of the demise of the socialist state systems were initiated.

Die Arbeit stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit es externen Akteuren möglich ist, zivilgesellschaftli-che Strukturen eines in der Transformation befindlichen Staates zu stärken, um damit einen Beitrag zur Konsolidierung nachkommunistischer Gesellschaften zu leisten. Resultiert die externe Förderung tatsächlich in eine "zivilere" Gesellschaft, welche sich auf mündige und aktive Bürger stützt, oder führt sie zu einem bloßen Transfer von Strukturen in Form von Nicht-Regierungsorganisationen (NRO), welche jedoch keine gesellschaftliche Anbindung haben und bloße Zuarbeiter westlicher Geberorganisationen sind? // Um diese Frage zu beantworten, werden im theoretischen Teil der Arbeit ausgehend vom akteurszentrierten Institutionalismus zwei wesentliche Mechanismen identifiziert, durch wel-che die Aktivitäten der Geber Veränderungen bei den Nehmern erzielen: Ermächtigung und Lernen. Während Ersteres die Einsatzmöglichkeiten und Ressourcen einiger Akteure stärkt und damit vorhandene Akteurskonstellationen ändert, führt Letzteres dazu, dass neue Ideen Eingang in die politische Arena finden. // Die Arbeit stellt die Aktivitäten vier verschiedener Geberländer und –organisationen in Polen und der Slowakei in den 1990er Jahren vor; der Europäischen Union, Deutschlands, der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und dem privaten Netzwerk der Soros Stiftungen; und un-tersucht deren Beitrag zur zivilgesellschaftlichen Entwicklung beider Länder. Hierzu werden lokale NROs in den Blick genommen, welche maßgeblich von westlichen Gebern unterstützt werden und untersucht, inwieweit diese als Träger der Zivilgesellschaft fungieren, welche Legitimität sie bei der Bevölkerung besitzen und ob sie nach Rückzug der Geber weiter exis-tieren. // Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Schluss, dass westliche Zivilgesellschaftsförderung in beiden un-tersuchten Ländern einen positiven Effekt hatte in dem Sinne, dass maßgeblich geförderte NROs tatsächlich als Träger der Zivilgesellschaft fungierten. Sie bemühten sich um die Un-terstützung anderer NROs, erweitern gesellschaftliche Partizipationsmöglichkeiten und sind soweit in nationale Strukturen und in der Gesellschaft verankert, dass auch ein Fortbestand ohne westliche Gelder möglich ist. ; With the end of the communist bloc and the transformations taking place in Central and Eastern Europe the promotion and protection of democracy from abroad became a major field of assistance. Especially civil society assistance, understood as direct support granted to non-governmental actors of the target state with the explicit aim to promote the consolida-tion of democracy, became a major pillar of democracy aid. The dissertation analyzes civil society assistance and aims to tackle the question whether it is feasible to promote and strengthen civil society from abroad. Does civil society assistance result in more civil society or does it result in nothing more than the establishment of donor driven NGOs which are nei-ther voluntary nor independent but solely function as puppets of donors? // In order to answer this question and following the insights of actor-centered institutionalism, the dissertation identifies to modes of external intervention labeled "empowerment" and "learning. In the first case, donors may increase the action resources of chosen domestic actors, thus altering domestic actor constellations, by providing finances, technical equip-ment, information and know-how. In the latter case, external actors may impact upon the ori-entations, that is, the perceptions and preferences, of domestic actors. // The dissertation analyses the contribution of the activities of four different donors; the Euro-pean Union, the USA, Germany and the private network of Soros Foundations; to the devel-opment of civil society in Poland and Slovakia. In order to pinpoint outcomes of civil society assistance the dissertation focuses on recipients and their activities. The dissertation thus clarifies to what extent main recipient organizations act as carriers of civil society, whether they transmit the interests of their constituency into politics, whether they fulfill a watch-dog function and democratic functions attributed to civil society. It therefore analyzes main recipi-ents, their sustainability, legitimacy and effectiveness as carriers of civil society. // The dissertation jumps to the conclusion that externally driven civil society assistance had positive effects in both countries under investigation as supported NGOs acted as carriers of civil society.

This study examines the Eastern enlargement of the European Union within the frame of imperialism. The existing literature on the Eastern enlargement has typically framed the transition of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) as "return to Europe" meaning their return to democracy, civil society and market economy. This perspective emphasizes that the enlargement has provided an integration of western and eastern parts of Europe. However, this study argues the Eastern enlargement has crystallized uneven development tendencies in EU rather than the integration. The European project expanded to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) after the collapse of the Soviet bloc to restructure the region in line with the requirements of global capitalism. Thus, the new imperialism in Central and Eastern Europe has a unique characteristic by inclusion of these countries into the EU block. The result for these countries has been dependency on the regional market namely the European Single Market. The study mainly focuses on the analysis of this unique characteristic of the new imperialism in the CEE through an empirical analysis on the transformation of the CEECs' economies during the integration process. It also provides a theoretical framework for the concepts of imperialism and new imperialism.

The Central and Eastern Europe Countries (CEECs) have been shaped by the EU conditionality, meaning that these countries were obliged to develop their administrative capacities in completely convergence with the acquis communautaire in order to join the European Union. The 2004 and 2007 enlargement of the EU and the accession negotiations have brought a systemic transformation of the CEECs through what is known in the literature as Europeanization. It seems to be a strong connection between conditionality and Europeanization, the former giving way to the latter. Therefore the capacity and the willingness of candidate countries to transfer the acquis into the domestic legal context have had a significant influence in the way in which the Europeanization process has succeeded in inhabiting the governance system of the CEECs. Considering these, the purpose of this paper is to examine through which mechanisms it was realized the correspondence between EU conditionality and the process of central and eastern enlargement-led Europeanization which seems to have been internalized distinctively by the CEECs, where administrative resources to comply with European standards were lagging behind.

Minimum wages continue to be at the centre of the policy debates in both developed and emerging economies. Such policies can only be effective if (1) the existing regulatory system does not have gaps that allow for the payment of wages below the minimum wage, and (2) the existing minimum wage laws are not violated (too often). In this paper we analyse minimum wage violations in 10 Central and Eastern European countries that have joined the EU since 2004, and that have statutory national minimum wages. Utilising EU-SILC data, we use the methodology proposed by Bhorat et al. (2013) to analyse both the incidence of minimum wage violations, as well as the monetary depth of these violations. We find that on average in 2003-2012, the estimated incidence of violations ranged from 1.0% in Bulgaria, to 1.3% in the Czech Republic, around 3% in Romania and Slovenia, 4.7% in Poland and Hungary, 5.6% in Latvia, and 6.9% in Lithuania. The average pay shortfall ranged from 13.7% of the country-year specific minimum wage in Estonia, to 41.7% in Slovenia. In all countries, workers who were female, less-educated, in the service or agricultural sector, in a micro firm, or with a temporary contract were more likely than other categories of workers to earn less than the minimum wage they were entitled to. While higher minimum to average wage ratios were associated with higher levels of non-compliance, this effect was present within countries over time, but not between them.

The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the degree of sustainability of fiscal debt for a group of Central and Eastern European countries. We apply a battery of time series econometrics methods to show how the financial crisis has affected the debt‐to‐gross domestic product ratio and how the ratio has behaved recently. The results give us important insights into how governments in Central and Eastern Europe have reacted to the accumulation of debt. We distinguish between two groups of countries: one group where the sovereign debt stock stabilized after the crisis, and another where debt has been accumulated more quickly in recent years. The results provide important policy lessons for the authorities responsible.

Universities in Central and Eastern Europe are caught between enforced data reporting (because the governments want them to account for their activities and performance) and institutional research for strategic development (because universities want to do better). Since the capacity for institutional research is in most universities still fairly limited (there are a few institutional researchers employed and these tend to work with centralized, yet non-integrated information systems), the emphasis of institutional research tends to be more on formal reporting than on supporting decision-making. Given that majority of universities in the region is still predominantly funded by the state, government steering crucially influences university practices. In most of national systems the governments have not developed performance-oriented financing and quality assurance mechanisms that would, in turn, prompt universities to adapt performance-oriented management practices with data analytics as a vital part.

Die Wirtschaft dürfte sich in den mittel- und osteuropäischen Ländern (MOEL) beleben, allerdings länderweise in unterschiedlichem Ausmaß. Zwischen September 2008 und März 2009 hatte sie teilweise einen schweren Rückschlag erlitten. Polen und Albanien waren die einzigen MOEL, deren Wachstum sich nur verlangsamte, während die Wirtschaftsleistung der baltischen Länder und der Ukraine drastisch schrumpfte. Eine Rückkehr zu den kräftigen Wachstumsraten der Jahre vor 2008 ist kurz- und mittelfristig nicht sehr wahrscheinlich, da das internationale und vor allem europäische Umfeld weniger günstig ist. Zudem haben sich die Bedingungen für die Finanzierung von Investitionsprojekten nachhaltig verschlechtert. Das hohe Leistungsbilanzdefizit einzelner MOEL wird von den Handelspartnern skeptischer beurteilt, und dies beinhaltet für die baltischen Länder und die Länder Südosteuropas eine grundlegende Änderung ihrer Parameter. ; Reprint from WIFO-Monatsberichte, Vol. 83, No. 5, May 2010 ; The Central and East European Countries (CEECs) have begun to show signs of more or less brisk economic recovery. It may, however, take time until their economies will have offset the severe setback they had to face between October 2008 and March 2009. The degree to which individual CEECs suffered from the international financial and economic crisis varies considerably, due to a range of different factors. Poland was an exception, as its GDP growth decelerated without coming to a complete halt in 2009. This had quite an impact as the size of the Polish GDP is similar to those of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia put together. The only other country where growth did not stop entirely was Albania. In sharp contrast to these two countries, the Baltic countries and Ukraine had to face a drastic decline in their GDP. The performance of all other CEECs ranged somewhere between these two extremes. It is rather unlikely that the CEECs will any time soon be returning to GDP growth rates as high as those they had achieved in the last pre-crisis years. The European and global business environment has become less propitious, and may not improve in the near future. In addition, the producing sector has been finding it more difficult and costly to get access to borrowing. Markets are likely to remain sceptic about high current account deficits, which, if true, would entail far-reaching changes in conditions especially for the Baltic and Southeast European countries. Most of the CEECs had achieved sound fiscal results up to 2008. National budget deficits were small or even non-existent. Government debt, too, was in most cases far below the Maastricht limit. Where debt is a problem, it is mainly private debt. Inflation decelerated in the course of the crisis and has disappeared completely in several countries. There is no saying whether inflation will reaccelerate soon. What is more scaring is the rise in unemployment, which will only stop in the context of a stronger revival of GDP growth.

A growing literature has identified a coherent economic model associated with populist governments in Central and Eastern Europe. This model runs counter to some aspects of the former neoliberal consensus in the region and to established theories of good governance. Considering three cases which are representative of these developments – Poland (since 2015), Hungary (since 2010), and Romania (2016–19) – we argue that a major unexplained puzzle is the relatively good economic performance of such governments. We develop three interrelated explanations for this apparent puzzle and test them using quantitative data. First, macroeconomic data show that the populist rhetoric of these parties is not associated with classical macroeconomic populism. Second, government accounting data show that public spending has been targeted towards specific groups and has not led to increasing tax burdens. Third, firm-level data on business confidence and institutional perceptions show no obvious negative effects associated with these governments.

We carry out a detailed analysis of quarterly frequency dynamics in macroeconomic aggregates in twelve countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The facts we document include the variability and persistence in and the co-movement among output, and other major real and nominal variables. We find that consumption is highly volatile and government spending is procyclical. Gross fixed capital formation is highly volatile. Net exports are countercyclical. Imports are procyclical, much more than exports. Exports are most procyclical and persistent in open countries. Labor market variables are all highly volatile. Employment is lagging, and often procyclical. Real wages are dominantly procyclical. Productivity is dominantly procyclical and coincidental. Private credit is procyclical and dominantly lagging the cycle. The CPI is countercyclical, and is weakly leading or coincidental. The cyclicality of inflation is unclear, but its relative volatility is low. Net capital flows are mostly leading and procyclical and exhibit low persistence. Nominal interest rates are in general smooth and persistent. The nominal exchange rate is more persistent than the real one. Overall, we find that fluctuations in CEE countries are larger than in industrial countries, and are of similar size than in other emerging economies. This is particularly true about private consumption. The co-movement of variables, however, shows a large degree of similarity. A notable exception is government spending: unlike in industrial economies, it is rather procyclical in transition economies. The findings also indicate that Croatia and the accession group show broadly similar cyclical behavior to industrial countries. The most frequent country outliers are Bulgaria, Romania and Russia, especially in labor market, price and exchange rate variables. Excluding these countries from the sample makes many of the observed patterns in cyclical dynamics quite homogenous.

The objective of this report is to provide guidance on the design and implementation of service delivery models that promote integration of care. Specifically, the report seeks to (i) systematically review the main reform levers of integrated care; (ii) identify processes needed to create an enabling environment for the implementation of integrated care; and (iii) provide guidance on sequencing the different levers and support strategies. This report builds on the findings of recent work that systematically analyzes well-functioning integrated programs in the European Union, North America, and elsewhere, as well as five case studies in Croatia and Poland that were carried out as part of this report.