Reflections of the Funds Distributed Under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance for Rural Development (IPARD) Program on Çanakkale

The European Union (EU) provides financial assistance to the countries that are the current candidates and the potential candidates for the development of rural areas. These countries are supported by rural development (RD), one of the five components of the instrument for pre-accession assistance (IPA). Turkey is also a candidate country to benefit from the financial assistance provided by the EU. This research aims to reveal the situation of the projects carried out with IPARD in Çanakkale province within the country. As a matter of fact, Çanakkale takes place at the lower ranks in terms of the number of projects and the number of grants. Despite its potential, the reasons for not achieving the desired results in this province are the lack of qualified consultants, insufficient access to beneficiaries, and problems in licensing of lands. This research, thus, has also put forward various solution suggestions in order to minimize these problems.

Who Are Belgrade’s Most Desired Allies?

Serbia presents itself as a country skillfully balancing between the European Union (EU), Russia, and Asia, trying to maintain good political and economic relations with the biggest players on the international arena. The Covid-19 pandemic and China’s media-publicized assistance to Serbia has affected the perception of which countries are seen as Belgrade’s true allies. At the same time, Serbia remains a EU candidate country (membership negotiations officially started in 2014) and the European Union is not only Serbian biggest trading partner, but also the biggest donor. The main aim of the article is to compare the distinctive meaning that EU membership and cooperation with non-EU countries (mainly China and Russia) has for Serbian political parties, taking into account that the Covid-19 pandemic and the ‘vaccine diplomacy’ influenced the Serbian public discourse and perception on who is the Belgrade’s most trustful partner.

WEEE treatment and system management in Italy and Serbia: A comparison

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) represent one of the growing waste streams in Europe, whose content of hazardous substances and valuable materials focus on how it is handled. However, there are differences between countries regarding e-waste management system in Europe. This paper analyses and presents data regarding the e-waste management system in Italy, one of the founding countries of the EU and Serbia – EU candidate country. Within this work, the following aspects were considered: legislative framework and EU directive goals in terms of e-waste, institutional setup, collection system, and existing recycling and treatment technologies. In addition, material flow analysis is used to model mass balance within WEEE treatment plants in both countries. Finally, through assessment and comparison of current systems in both countries, problems and shortages of Serbia’s e-waste management system are addressed.

A Panoramic View of the UK Relations with the EU and Turkey Post-Brexit

In the last century, the importance of foreign trade, particularly net exports of goods and services, in achieving balanced and high-quality economic growth has become increasingly apparent. This certainly applies to Turkey. For example, the Eleventh Development Plan prepared for the 2019-2023 period was determined within the framework of a stable, export-based growth model, in which the industrial sector played a dominant role, focusing on productivity. Recently, the new trade regime between Turkey and the United Kingdom after Brexit has been included among the subjects within the agenda of Turkish foreign trade. The present study aims to find the preliminary clues to understand the extent of the recent trade agreement between two countries, which share deep-rooted trade links, in light of the new UK-EU deal. While one of these countries does not want to lose its position as a candidate country, despite the obstacles and disagreements posed by the EU in the negotiation mechanism, the other has managed to leave the EU as a result of a very intense and complex process, that lasted approximately thirty-four months.

DETERMINANTS OF THE BILATERAL TRADE FLOWS OF NORTH MACEDONIA– A GRAVITY MODEL APPROACH

The paper makes an indetail overview of the structure of the trade exchange of goods of Macedonia and explores the determinants of its bilateral trade flows using the gravity model. The analysis includes data on 40 trade partners of Macedonia in the period from 2005-2019. The used variables in the model are: GDP per capita difference, population, distance and relative endowments of factors of production (capital, land and labour). In most of the analyzed regressions the coefficients on determinants such as GDP per capita difference and population are positive and their impact upon the bilateral trade (as dependent variable) is statistically significant. Intensity of Macedonian trade decreases in regard of the distance from a trade partner and increases in partner’s size – the country tends to trade more with lager countries. In our analysis we included three dummy variables such as: membership in the EU and in CEFTA-2006 and common language. The impact of the possible membership in the EU is clearly positive and statistically significant. Being a candidate country for full EU membership, Macedonia trades more with EU trade partners rather than with the neibouring countries, members of CEFTA-2006. Keywords: bilateral trade, gravity model, trade partners, Republic of North Macedonia, European Union, CEFTA-2006

Family Support in the Republic of North Macedonia

Ensuring children's rights and family well-being is a priority of every European country. The Republic of North Macedonia, as a candidate country of the European Union, shares the same family values and family policies as the remaining EU member states. However, despite the past governmental efforts in the area of legal harmonization, several gaps have to be fulfilled and policies to be improved to achieve efficient institutions at the European level. To expand existing policies regarding family support, we consider crucial the analysis of the factual situation in the country, as a basic step towards further research. Therefore, this paper aims to initially provide an analysis of the family support legal framework of the country. Secondly, we intend to map governmental and non-governmental institutions in the Republic of North Macedonia which is responsible to provide family, children, and parents' support. By doing so, we can develop additionally omitted family policies or improve existing ones. Finally, the paper will present a list of competencies of the employees of family support institutions to evaluate more peculiarly their staff's skills standards.

ACCESSION TO THE EU – ADVANTAGES AND POTENTIAL RISKS

By signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union on April 29, 2008, Serbia committed itself to harmonize its legislation with the aquis communautaire of the European Union. Perception of the basic characteristics of the European Union legal system and its understanding is important in the context of harmonization, i.e. in the context of the measures for the establishment of a common and internal market, as well as of a pre-accession strategy of a third country for the accession to this organization. Therefore, a candidate country is expected to create a favourable legal environment for the operation of local economic entities in the internal market. In order to succeed in that, it needs to harmonize its legislation with the acquis communautaire gradually, and first of all, it is necessary to be well familiar and have full understanding of the EU regulations which are expected to be transposed by a candidate country.

Fiscal Decentralization and Alternative Financial Sources for the Local Self-Government in Republic of North Macedonia - Overview

Local governance in developing countries demonstrates many problems related to financial sources and good governance of their finances. Local Self-Government (LSG) units in the Republic of North Macedonia are very small which results in a lack of capabilities to raise enough funds to offer delegated services. The local government in the Republic of North Macedonia centralizes almost all public finance. Local budgets depend heavily on state transfers and donations from the central budget. The lack of funds remained a crucial problem even though there were some attempts for the decentralization process. Practically, governments in many of the local governments in North Macedonia could not secure their resources. In this way, they could come with specific charges, but all taxes are decided by the central government. The practice showed that local governments before borrowing needs to be approved by the Ministry of Finance. The Republic of North Macedonia as a potential candidate to join the European Union should make several changes regarding the legislation during the process of accession to benefit from being a small candidate country. The main aim of this paper is to investigate alternative financial sources such are Municipal Bonds, Partnership Sukuk securities, and PPP. Unfortunately, many financial alternatives have not been able to be implemented due to failures in reforms and good financial governance. But they remain an open opportunity for developing a local government in the future.

Changed Perspectives and Conflicting Treaty Obligations

The authors analyse the changed landscape of the EU BIT policy following the Achmea decision and the 2020 Termination Agreement, in particular, their relevance for candidate countries such as Serbia. The perceived risks strongly suggest that some action must be taken before the accession to avoid becoming caught between conflicting obligations under EU law and the BITs, as happened to respondent countries in the cases of Micula and Magyar Farming Company. The potential for conflicts exists in the case of Serbia as well because it already has an obligation to comply with EU law in areas such as competition and state aid law, which may cause it to inadvertently breach investors’ rights under the BITs. Various options that a candidate country can pursue to adjust its bilateral investment treaties to EU law standards are considered in search of the best approach. Difficulties that may be encountered due to the premature termination of sunset clauses and the retroactive termination of arbitration clauses in pending arbitrations lead the authors to conclude that certain adjustments to the course of action adopted within the EU are called for. The proposed action in the case of Serbia consists of consensually amending the 22 Serbia-EU member state BITs following a two-step procedure so that the sunset clauses are terminated at once, whereas the remaining provisions of the BITs are designated by the contracting parties to be terminated on the date of accession. To prevent treaty shopping, these amendments need to be accompanied by comprehensive reform of Serbia’s other BITs that contain overly broad definitions of investors and investments. Some alternative approaches are also taken into consideration, such as the replacement of ISDS with other forms of dispute resolution and the replacement of the Serbia-EU member state BITs with other types of agreements. The candidate countries are advised to adjust their pre-accession commitments, both procedural and substantive, in a timely manner with the incoming EU obligations. These inevitable adjustments should be pursued cautiously by candidate countries to minimise risks and maximise their bargaining power.

Geospatial model for establishing constructed wetlands for municipal waste water treatment: Case study in South Bačka District, Serbia

The process of integration into the European Union (EU) requires from new member states significant efforts; not only harmonizing legislation but also respecting all posed standards. Among numerous issues, wastewater purification represents a significant request. To achieve the goal of discharging good-quality water into natural water bodies as recipients, various methods have been used. The method of constructed wetland (CW) is based on wastewater purification by using wetland plants. The method of CWs shows the best results for small settlements for up to 5,000 inhabitants and can be nicely integrated within the landscape of a plain where waterbodies’ banks are overgrown by wetland plants. Such facilities have been used for decades in the territory of the EU, and only a few have been built in the Republic of Serbia. Since the Republic of Serbia is a candidate country for the EU, there is a strong intention to take action focused upon solving wastewater purification from various sources. Therefore, this paper aims to examine favourable locations for CW installations within the rural area of the South Bačka District. Geographic information system was applied for examination of the basic spatial criteria (distance from the settlement, distance from water bodies, elevation, and land use). These were presented in separate maps and finally in one joint map of favourability for establishing CWs in the vicinity of 35 villages within the District. The obtained results have fulfilled the basic spatial preconditions, but further analyses should be conducted to precisely position the location of each CW concerning land ownership criterion.