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  The Kremlin Playbook: Understanding Russian Influence in Central and Eastern Europe
Russia has used a number of instruments to amplify its economic footprint in Central and Eastern Europe, aiming to increase its political influence, to capture public policy making, and ultimately to discredit the West's democratic model, and undermine trans-Atlantic ties. These instruments have been outlined in The Kremlin Playbook: Understanding Russian Influence in Eastern and Central Europe, a report prepared by the Center for the Study of Democracy in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The report was presented at a public event at CSIS in Washington D.C. more »
 
Countering Corruption and State Capture in Southeast Europe
In the past ten years, both the nature of corruption and the anti-corruption agenda in Southeast Europe have changed. Political corruption has replaced petty bribery both as the dominant concern of national and international reformists and as one of the leading causes for most social and economic damage. The earlier emphasis on harmonising national legislation with international standards has now been substituted by a focus on its enforcement. In 2012 the European Commission adopted a new enlargement approach, which placed rule of law, anti-corruption, and judicial reform at the heart of the process. To respond to the new EU policy priorities, the Southeast European Leadership for Development and Integrity (SELDI) coalition and the Macedonian Anti-Corruption Platform have developed and implemented a civil society-led approach to monitoring and tackling corruption, which provides policy makers with important insights. more »
 
National Study on Domestic and Gender-based Violence and Elaboration of Victims' Support Model
Bulgaria is among those half of the EU-member states where statistical information about victim-offender relationship is not gathered, hereby making impossible the assessment of the share of domestic violence among the crimes against the person. Domestic violence is not qualified as a criminal offence and is still not included in the Criminal Code – and respectively, in the statistical data provided by the Police and by the National Statistical Institute. In the described country context, the need of systematic study on the prevalence, forms, vulnerable groups, unmet needs of the victims, and possibilities for further stable improvement of their situation, is beyond any doubt. more »
 
Shadow Economies and Undeclared Work in Europe: New Insights and Policy Response
In recent years the shadow economy, once thought to be a problem only for less economically developed countries, has become recognised a pressing issue for developed economies as well. It acutely affects Bulgaria which is widely recognised as having the largest shadow economy in the European Union. The Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) in cooperation with the Sheffield University Management School (UK) and the Institute of Public Finance (Croatia) organised an international Marie Curie conference with the aim to provide a better understanding of the causes and effects of the shadow economy and undeclared work as well as to new insights in the field and to identify various policy responses. During the conference, which gathered leading academics, government officials and politicians, it became clear that it is possible to identify and rectify the shadow economy but that is neither an easy nor a simple task. more »
 
Development and Implementation of Unified Standards for Forced Return Monitoring
The Center for the Study of Democracy and CVS-Bulgaria supported by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, co-financed by the European Union, launched the initiative Development and Implementation of Unified Standards for Forced Return Monitoring. more »
 
Tackling Criminal Finances: Anti-Money Laundering in Bulgaria
Money laundering (ML) and other financial crimes are generally linked to different predicate offences by organized crime groups (most often with regards to traffic of narcotics and human beings, prostitution, weapons, computer crimes, etc.). Combating and investigating money laundering thus requires a systematic approach to collection and analysis of financial information for the activities of organized crime groups, as well as broader application and understanding of the legal framework, and substantiation of the existing capacity within the relevant law enforcement structures. more »
 
State Capture Unplugged: Countering Administrative and Political Corruption in Bulgaria
The lack of a sustainable anticorruption solution in Bulgaria is indicative of a far more significant problem - the numerous corrupt relations and dependencies involving high-level officials and politicians, known as state capture. This leads to the formation of systemic flaws such as abuse of public procurement mechanisms, hidden economy, VAT and other tax scams, blocking of law enforcement and control institutions, media capture. more »
 
CSD awarded five stars from Transparify
In the 2016 Transparify ranking, the Center for the Study of Democracy is awarded five stars for a second time, along with two SELDI members from Montenegro – the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) and Institute Alternative (IA). Transparify, a non-profit initiative based in Georgia (Caucasus), provides the first-ever global rating of the financial transparency of 200 major think tanks in 47 countries. more »
 
Validating Radicalisation Monitoring Tools in South East and Central Europe
Countering radicalisation that turns to terrorism has become an issue of particular concern for many European spcieties. Both Islamist and right wing radicalization have seen resurgence in recent years leading to violent attacks on European soil. In this context the early detection of radicalization processes and the understanding of the root causes and factors that trigger them becomes ever more important so that early prevention is enacted. more »
 
Strengthening Resilience to Corruption and State Capture in Southeast Europe
The past year has vividly exposed governance vulnerabilities in Southeast Europe and how they threaten to undermine the region’s European perspective. The migration crisis, the economic stagnation, and the Russia-EU geopolitical stand-off have shown the need to reinvigorate the European Union’s engagement with the region. A critical part of this engagement remains the need to reduce corruption and state-capture vulnerabilities in Southeast Europe, in particular in the energy sector. more »
 

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