The international conference on the Informal Economy in the EU Accession Countries: Size, Scope, and the Trends in Trafficking and Corruption, held on 29-30 November, 2002 in Sofia, was organized by the Center for the Study of Democracy with the support of the European Commission. The event was second in a series of activities designed to address the issue of the informal economy in the Central and East European countries in the context of their accession to the European Union. Its major objectives were:

• to provide an adequate picture of the size and the scope of the informal economy in the EU accession countries;
  
  
• to explore the nature of the informal economy through application of the available methods of assessment and give recommendation on the applicability of specific approaches depending on a dynamic set of variables;
  
  
• to promote a consensus on the role of the informal economy in Europe and its possible implications in the process of EU enlargement.
  
  

The participants in the conference were leading experts in the field - academics, policy makers, representatives of relevant NGOs, and others, from EU member-states, accession countries and other SEE countries. The format of the round table included presentations of the results of original research by the participants and experts in the field as well as a discussion of their findings.

See also:

Conference agenda and presentations
Media coverage (only in Bulgarian)
Related events and publications of CSD

Main page of the conference