Suchergebnisse

The opportunity for submission of B&H's application for EU membership was opened with the entering into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, and was carried out in February 2016. The membership application must contain European affiliation of the applicant country, inclusion in the European Union as a policy objective of the applicant country, as well as readiness for assuming all objectives and commitments ensuing from membership in the EU. B&H is at the very bottom compared to Central European countries, and is below 30% of European Union average in view of level of development. That points to the necessity of implementation of structural reforms in order to mobilize the private sector, which must be the main generator of growth and increase in employment, and which will gradually bring B&H closer to the EU average. 165,8 billion euros are intended for B&H from IPA II programme for the period 2014-2017, whereas the amount of available funds for the period 2018-2020 will be defined subsequently. It has been decided that 13,7 million years will be allocated annually for socioeconomic and regional development in 2016 and 2017. In 2014, 4 million euros were allocated for undertakings regarding employment, active social policy, education, research and development, promotion of gender equality and human resources development, and 11 million annually in the following years, including 2017. Reforms financed from IPA should provide citizens with better opportunities and allow for development of standards equal to those of EU citizens.

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), are Treaties between two or more states to liberalize mutual trade or other economic relations. Among such RTAs the European Union is the largest one and most complex, including 28 member states with developed high levels of trade, monetary and economic cooperation in 2018. Generally RTAs follow the idea that more free trade and more liberal environment for other economic cooperation activities among the integrated states create an environment enabling additional and accelerated economic growth of member states, together with some other positive structural and economic gains. After1992 the number of newly registered RTAs with GATT and later with WTO started to increase very fast in comparison to the entire period after the WW II. In May 2018 all WTO registered active RTAs reached the number of 287. The number of active RTA evidently exceeds the number of all world's states. The number of 287 active RTAs suggests that at least some states participate in more than one form of RTA. Such fact further strongly suggests that at least before 2017 there was globally developed an intensive interest among states to join or create one or another form of the RTA. The growth of registered and active RTAs in the last 25 or so years confirms realization of the theoretically predicted positive economic impacts of the RTAs on the member states economic achievements. However Mr. Trump, as the actual President of the USA, started to question expected positive economic gains of the existing RTAs. The policy of unilateral increases of USA's import tariffs introduced by new USA administration presents open violation of the WTO trading rules. The USA's discriminatory trade policy has been further extended by the decided that USA has to exit from its existing RTAs. USA's decision of dismantling of the existing RTAs creates questions about their real economic efficiency and generally about the future of such international trade agreements. The process and actions after the dismantling and renegotiating of the USA's RTA with Mexico and Canada, known as North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, established Jan.1, 1994) produce some insight into the weaknesses and into the potential changes of the future RTAs. In the paper we analyse expected economic gains and eventual disadvantages of the RTAs for the member states. The expected end of NAFTA and creation of a new trade agreement between USA, Mexico and Canada are analysed with the purpose to develop insights into the probable future existence and reforms of the RTAs in the global economy.

It is important for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also for the European Union, that the negotiation process begins as soon as possible. Real changes in the legal, administrative and political sense
commence only with fulfilment of benchmarks for opening and
closing of chapters. The negotiation process is also important for
learning and progressing in the understanding of European policies which help to strengthen state institutions, democracy and
openness to grow and result with stronger economic growth due
to an increased level of trust and safety. It is important for the
European Union that the country at the very heart of Europe,
which belongs to Europe not only geographically, but also historically and in terms of tradition and culture, becomes a part of
it as soon as possible and also in terms of the standards it applies.
In this paper we give an overview of recommendations that the
European Commission has provided to Bosnia and Herzegovina
since 2002, and it is precisely from the recommendations which
are being repeated each year that the most important challenges
which Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to solve are still visible. Rule
of law, respecting human rights and rights of minorities, as well as
the constitutionality of the three nations, in addition to a fast and
efficient judicial system and the public sector as a whole are the key
elements for fulfilling political, legal and administrative criteria.
At the moment B&H is significantly lagging behind even the least
developed Member States and convergence towards the EU average
is necessary because on the current level B&H could not equally
participate in the EU Single Market, and accession would create more obstacles than advantages. The EU is expected to take a more active approach in solving the
challenges of economic convergence of B&H, therefore in this paper an overview is provided of the
priorities of the new EU Enlargement Strategy in which support to socioeconomic development is
pointed out as one of the initiatives.
Keywords: EU programs; BiH; Croats; sustainable development; economy.

Althout, scientific interest in the informal economy is from a recent date, there are already serious analyzes that define its forms, as well as standardized methods that measure its scope. In this text we will point out some theoretical dilemmas concerning informal economy as a sector emebeded deeply in the society as a whole. The informal economy sector can be understood as a rational response by people to the way of life, the environment, the way in which the institutions work, the economic development of society or the culture itself - despite the fact that some consequences have an irrational character (exploitation, discrimination, violation of human rights and freedoms). Special attention is paid to political clientelism and corruption as forms of informal economy with a special focus on the situation in R. of Macedonia.

European monetary integration is a long-term process which ended with the establishment of the European Economic and Monetary union in 2002. Entering in the last stage of integration and adopting the euro is significant step for the economies of member states. To participate in the EMU, member states need to fulfil certain criteria, known as the convergence criteria or Maastricht criteria, which essentially comprise the fulfilment of the price stability, financial stability and stability of exchange rates and interest rates. Considering nominal criteria, member states must accomplish real convergence which means they need to reduce development lagging after other EU members. This paper examines effects of euro adoption on entire European Union including Republic of Croatia. The effects of adopting the euro on Croatian economy are explored from microeconomic and macroeconomic aspect. Regarding the variety of positive, but also negative effects on Croatian economy which are analysed in this paper, it can be concluded that adopting the euro has a positive effect on Croatian economy, assuming the convergence criteria achievement and initiation of the structural reforms that will reduce development disparities between Croatian economy and economies of the rest EU member states.

It is important for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also for the European Union, that the negotiation process begins as soon as possible. Real changes in the legal, administrative and political sense commence only with fulfillment of benchmarks for opening and closing of chapters. The negotiation process is also important for learning and progressing in the understanding of European policies which help to strengthen state institutions, democracy and openness to grow and result with stronger economic growth due to an increased level of trust and safety. It is important for the European Union that the country at the very heart of Europe, which belongs to Europe not only geographically, but also historicallyand in terms of tradition and culture becomes a part of it as soon as possible and also in terms of the standards it applies. In this paper we give an overview of recommendations that the European Commission has provided to Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2002, and it is precisely from the recommendations which are being repeated each year that the most important challenges which Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to solve are still visible. Rule of law, respecting human rights and rights of minorities, as well as the constitutionality of the three nations, in addition to a fast and efficient judicial system and the public sector as a whole are the key elements for fulfilling political, legal and administrative criteria. In terms of GDP per capita in PPS, B&H has been converging during the last ten years, however with a very slow tempo. Thereby in 2005 GDP per capita in PPS amounted to 24 % in relation to EU 28, whereas during the last four years it amounted to 29%. At the moment B&H is significantly lagging behind even the least developed Member States and convergence towards the EU average is necessary because on the current level B&H could not equally participate in the EU Single Market, and accession would create more obstacles than advantages. The EU is expected to take a more active approach in solving the challenges of economic convergence of B&H, therefore in this paper is provided and overview of the priorities of the new EU Enlargement Strategy in which support to socioeconomic development is pointed out as one of the initiatives.

The utilization of European Union (EU) financial assistance is one of the central issues for Member States, as well as Candidate Countries like Croatia. In order to fully gain from the allocated resources of the EU budget, each country needs an adequate absorption capacity (AC). This article is about the absorption capacity of EU pre-accession programs in Croatia. The absorption capacity of EU pre-accession assistance is seen from two theoretical standpoints: the first originates from development economics, while the second developed from the theory of multilevel governance (MLG). The purpose of this article is to analyse the factors / determinants of absorption capacity, and the implementation of pre-accession programs in Croatian municipalities. In order to test the relation of AC and implementation (usage) of the EU funds, an empirical multivariable regression model of AC was established. The empirical estimation confirmed the expected positive correlation between the AC and EU funds. Another key issue that was discovered is that AC is very much a dynamic concept in the sense that ability to use EU funds changes over time, in response to a variety of endogenous and exogenous factors. As such, it calls for broader analysis and presents a challenge for further work on the subject.