Publications

In 2018 the EU and NATO and the countries from the Western Balkans have a unique chance to reinvigorate the Euro Atlantic perspective of the region. There are many areas of concern that require attention but anticorruption and good governance remain the most critical to tackling the two key risks for the Western Balkans. On the one hand, countering corruption and state capture will free the economy from the monopoly of entrenched political-economic groups and will open up space for spurring entrepreneurship and lowering unemployment. On the other hand, strengthening the rule of law and...

The Western Balkans have become one of the regions, in which Russia has increasingly sought to (re)assert its presence in the past decade. In attempt to improve the understanding of the impact of the interplay between existing governance gaps and the inflow of authoritarian capital in the region, the Center for the Study of Democracy developed an assessment of the Russian economic footprint in Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although in absolute numbers Russian investment in the region has increased by more than EUR 3 billion, Russia’s economic footprint as share of...

The President of the European Commission has announced 2025 as the target year for the next EU Enlargement in the Western Balkans. The EU would need to carefully balance the desire to provide actionable commitment for enlargement with the reality of slow progress in anticorruption. At 26% of the population, corruption levels in the Western Balkans remain high, despite the fact that EU aided efforts have resulted in a stable decline. In 2018, the European Commission is expected to introduce a reinforced Enlargement Strategy and a new Progress Monitoring Mechanism. It will seek to leverage the...

The publication provides a review of the architecture and key results from the main methodological instruments, applied by the Southeast Europe Leadership for Development and Integrity (SELDI) network in Southeast Europe (SEE). SELDI`s advocacy impact, channelled through local ownership and strong public-private partnership foundation, is built upon state-of-the-art corruption and hidden economy monitoring tools. SELDI`s constant drive for social innovation has pushed its members to also devise new instruments, particularly in response to recently emerged, complex and systemic corruption...

Recently a court case was filed against a journalist for publishing “state secret information.” At the same time he filed a lawsuit seeking access to a public document. The journalist won both cases but the reality did not change: state authorities described him in several public statements as a “spy.” And, despite a legal decision in his favor, he did not receive the document he needed for his work.This exemplifies how freedom of press has proven, time and time again, to be an unpredictable and tumultuous factor in Southeast Europe, and how journalists are obstructed in their daily work....

The current report examines the key drivers of the hidden economy and its impact on the overall economy in SEE, and in particular the employment, social and fiscal sectors. The authors focus on the links between hidden economy and corruption, especially the administrative corruption, related to VAT drain, tax payment evasion, social security payment evasion, and “speeding up” business related services. They  propose new approaches for measuring and analysing the phenomena, as well as preventive and counter-measures. The hidden economy in SEE remains wide-spread, perpetuates...

According to the authors of the policy brief, not declaring in full or partially economic activities in SEE remains widespread in virtually all areas of government – permissions and licenses, labour contracts, social security, taxes and custom duties. It signals a persistent gap between formal and informal institutions and lack of coherent enforcement of rules. Corruption pressure is higher towards those engaged in the hidden economy. At the same time their susceptibility to corruption is also higher, confirming the institutional incongruence. The immense diversity of the scale (from 19 % in...

The report 'Public Perceptions' presents the results of two public perception surveys on corruption in Turkey in a comparative manner. The surveys were conducted by Infakto for TESEV first in 2014 (February-March) and in 2016 (February). What comes to the fore in the analysis of the results is that besides personal views and experiences, socio-political environment can affect how corruption is perceived. An assessment of perceptions on corruption can pave the way for a macro-level analysis of the social and political conditions where corruption occurs. Hence, perceptions on corruption emerge...

The Civil Society Strategy and Joint Strategic Programme for Good Governance and Anti-Corruption in SEE 2020 describes the current and desired future role of the civil society from the Southeast Europe region in implementing anti-corruption measures. It is the result of a consultation process between members of the SELDI coalition and stakeholders in the region, including other CSOs, government institutions, and regional organisations. It aims to present both a wider strategy for civil society in SEE in anti-corruption and SELDI’s programme until 2020. Reducing corruption requires relevant...

The current policy brief presents SELDI's key findings on the manifestations, causes and impacts of the hidden economy and undeclared labour in SEE in 2016. According to the research, the hidden economy in SEE remains wide-spread, perpetuates informality, which is linked to corruption, and denotes a substantial gap between formal and informal institutions. This gap is due both to underdeveloped formal market institutions, and also to the lack of coherent enforcement of rules, often related to corruption. Those engaged in the hidden economy are more likely to face corruption pressure than the...