I. Facilitating Policy Dialogue
In 2003, CSD started its series of annual security conferences focused on Southeast Europe. Much remains to be done about the stability of the region and CSD is providing a platform where government officials and independent experts could hammer out the vision and the policies to sustain security. The public-private format of the conferences
- attended by NATO's Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General, high ranking officials from international and European institutions, SEE ministers of defense and interior, NGO leaders
- is particularly appropriate to address non-traditional security challenges. Corruption, smuggling and organized crime have been among the key issues discussed at the conferences.

The second international security conference NATO, EU and the New Risks: A Southeast Europe Perspective
was held on October 29-30, 2004 in Sofia with the participation of NATO Deputy Secretary General and five SEE ministers of defense and interior. The conference, jointly organized with NATO, the Norwegian government and the Bulgarian ministries of defense, interior and foreign affairs, aimed to generate further substantial debate on today's security situation in Southeast Europe. While focusing the attention on the Western Balkans participants in the conference emphasized the importance of continued assertive involvement of the international community, particularly NATO and the EU. The forum was attended by more than a hundred representatives of Bulgarian state institutions, NGOs and academics and around 50 journalists from the region. The event was reported in 30 articles published in Bulgarian and foreign media.
In his keynote speech NATO's Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Alessandro Minuto Rizzo, stressed that security and stability in South East Europe is challenged by organized crime, corruption, illegal migration, human trafficking and the unlawful trade in small arms. As a result, there is also an increasing appreciation of the significance of the rule of law for security and stability, a point argued by CSD for some years.

Dr. Ognian Shentov, CSD Chairman, opens the conference. Next to him:
Mr. Plamen Panayotov, Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria,
Amb. Alessandro Minuto Rizzo, NATO Deputy Secretary General and
Amb. Boyko Noev, CSD European Program Director

One of CSD's longest traditions is being the facilitator of discussions on key policy issues on Bulgaria's Euro-Atlantic agenda. Throughout the year the European Program organized a number of visits and lectures by foreign experts. As part of its partnership with the US Embassy in Bulgaria the CSD continued the series of lectures of experts on countering trans-border crime and the development of the trans-Atlantic relations. In 2004 the Center hosted several lectures of prominent experts from leading US media and academic institutions.

• The Philadelphia Inquirer reporter George Anastasia took part in a discussion on the role of the media in the fight against organized crime
on September 29, 2004.

Mr. George Anastasia, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter (left) and
Mr. Boyko Todorov, CSD Program Director

CSD's European Program also aims to provide specific professional communities in Bulgaria and Europe and the US. Particularly active this cooperation is with the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior, the Defense and Staff College and the Military University. In 2004, CSD's European Program was both facilitating the participation of defense officials in policy discussions with representatives of foreign governments and international institutions, and providing the security sector with specific training assistance.

As part of a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Defense, CSD organized training seminars for lecturers at the National Defense University (NDU) faculties and the Bulgarian Armed Forces officers aimed to enhance their capacity to deliver anticorruption courses to NDU students and conscripts. The seminars were part of a long-term anticorruption program for Bulgarian security officers, featuring an exchange of experience between Bulgarian and foreign security experts. The June seminar Countering the New Security Challenges: the Experience of Norway and Bulgaria made a significant contribution in this regard. It included participants from
the Norwegian Criminal Investigation Service (KRIPOS), the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), the Bulgarian National Service for Combating Organized Crime and the Ministry of Defense.

On 21-22 October 2004 CSD hosted an anti-corruption seminar for lecturers at faculties of the National Defense University with the participation of experts from the General Headquarters of the Bulgarian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense. The seminar covered the following issues:
• Definitions, scope and forms of corruption.
• Corruption monitoring
• System of planning, programming and budgeting at the Ministry of Defense
• Countering corruption in the state administration
• Grey economy, contraband and corruption.

Ms. Signe Arnesen, Police Advisor, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
(NUPI) (left) and Mr. Jan Nybakk, Superintendent, Norwegian Criminal Investigation
Service (KRIPOS) (right) spoke at a CSD seminar Countering the New Security
Challenges: the Experience of Norway and Bulgaria in June

Combating Corruption in the State Administration and the Security Forces Workshop,
December 16, 2004.
From left: Mr. David Wolstenholme, Pre-Accession Advisor, Ministry of Interior of
Bulgaria, Mr. Lyubomir Robov, Deputy Director, Inspectorate Directorate, Ministry of
Interior and Lieut. Gen. (ret.) Chavdar Chervenkov

During 2004 there was a marked increase in the interest among policy makers and government experts in the countries of the Western Balkans towards Bulgaria's experience in reforms, related to NATO and EU membership. To meet this interest, CSD's European Program worked with officials from the Bulgarian Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Defense to enable the transfer of their experience to their counterparts in Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries.

In December CSD jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria organized a workshop on Combating Corruption in the State Administration and the Security Forces for more than 40 experts from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Interior and Justice, form the Customs Administration and the Prosecutor's Offices of Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Romania and Bulgaria. The workshop
was held under the Memorandum for Cooperation in the Field of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration between the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, and in the context of the Adriatic Charter. Following the opening remarks of Mr. Nikolay Milkov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, a series of lectures by Bulgarian and foreign experts was delivered on various aspects of corruption, and the ways to prevent and counteract it.

II. Policy Studies
Organized Crime
Another area of work of the European program links the elaboration of innovative methods of analysis of the new security risks and the consequences for the Euro-Atlantic integration of Bulgaria. CSD remained the leading Bulgarian civil society institution working on issues related to organized crime. With fighting organized crime being a top-priority issue to the European Union, CSD experts remained important source of knowledge and analysis for the Bulgarian government, foreign diplomats, as well domestic and international media. CSD experts gave numerous private and public briefings, interviews, and analyses on the issue. CSD experts also participated in various international conferences and events on organized crime, such as the 6th Colloquium on Cross-Border Crime: "Crime and Economy and Crime Economy" in Berlin.

At the Berlin Colloquium, Senior Analyst Tihomir Bezlov presented the paper Drug Market and Drug Trafficking in Bulgaria that was included in a volume of selected colloquium papers. Following the 2003 publication The Drug Market in Bulgaria, Tihomir Bezlov gave several lectures on the drugs-related topics at the Ministry of Interior Police Academy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Diplomatic Institute. He was also the co-author, with Cas Barendregt, of the report Injecting Drug Users in Bulgaria, which was published in August by the Sofia-based Initiative for Health Foundation.

In 2004 the European program completed a study in the area of monitoring and prevention of trafficking and corruption in Bulgaria. The main purpose of the study was to highlight the risk areas for corruption in border and trade-control systems and to make recommendations on improving them. The paper Transportation, Smuggling and Organized Crime analyses the infrastructure of the organized criminal groups involved in contraband practices and gives recommendations for improvement of the institutional and interagency cooperation.

Public discussion Transportation, Smuggling, and Organized Crime (October 14, 2004)
From left: Mr. Assen Assenov, Director, Customs Agency, Mr. Roumen Stoilov, Deputy Minister
of Interior, Dr. Ognian Shentov, CSD Chairman, Mr. Boyko Todorov, CSD Program Director and
Mr. Stamen Tassev, Deputy Minister of Finance

Of particular importance for the impact that the study made were the research methods employed. The independent evaluation carried out by CSD researchers of the border-crossings of Kulata, Kapitan Andreevo, and the Port of Varna was based on interviews customs officers and border guards on border-security and trafficking issues. Over 700 interviews were conducted with former and current border-guards, customs officers, Mol and police officials, truck drivers, traffickers, international consultants, and businesses. The report was presented at a public discussion in October. The discussion triggered a significant media interest and was ref-ereed to in more than 40 articles in local and international print and electronic media.

SALW Control
The Center continued its cooperation with the UK based organization Saferworld on issues related to the controls of small arms and light weapons (SALW). With its work on two research projects on SALW issues during 2003 and 2004, CSD became the leading civil society organization in Bulgaria working in the field of small arms. As a result, in 2004 CSD experts were frequently invited as resource persons to a number of discussions in Bulgaria as well as in the CIS countries.

Discussion on Small Arms Proliferation and Organized Crime in Bulgaria (April 5, 2004)
From left: Mr. Agron Sojati, Head of SALW Task Force, SECI Center, Gen. Roumen Milanov,
NSCOC Director, Mr. Tihomir Bezlov, CSD Senior Analyst and Mr. Boyko Todorov, CSD
Program Director

The analysis Weapons under Scrutiny, developed in 2003 jointly with Saferworld was presented to the public in April 2004. The work of CSD was aided by an expert working group that involved representatives of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Economy,
the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Customs Agency, academics and arms control experts. The report examined the Bulgarian arms export control system and made a range of recommendations for the improvement of the export control legislative framework, the structure of the controlling government institutions.
Following the successful work on the issues of arms export controls, CSD and Saferworld were commissioned by The South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC) to write a SALW Survey of Bulgaria, which had four major components:
• The Small Arms Distribution Survey included data on the type, quantity, ownership, distribution and movement of SALW within the country or the region;
• The Small Arms Impact Survey analyzed the impact of SALW on different
members of the community and social and economic development;
• The Small Arms Perception Survey,
conducted by Vitosha Research, gathered qualitative information on the attitudes of Bulgarians to SALW ownership, effects and usage and possible interventions;
• The Small Arms Capacity Survey
assessed the government's capacity to conduct an appropriate, safe, efficient and effective SALW intervention.
As part of its work on the SALW surveys, CSD pioneered research on domestic gun control and gun crime. CSD researchers worked closely with Ministry of Interior agencies, such as the National Service for Combating Organized Crime (NSCOC), on analyzing gun crime data. Preliminary research findings were presented by Research Fellow Philip Gounev to an expert panel at a seminar, organized in November by the Bulgarian Committee of the Red Cross.