Publications by Partners

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....

Macedonia features in many discussions as a country with high hidden economy. The European Commission has repeatedly voiced its concerns in its regular country reports about the size and proliferation of hidden economy practices. Hidden employment or undeclared work in Macedonia is of particular concern to the authorities, provided the very high and stubborn levels of official unemployment and low employment levels. However, most studies and research on the matter involve a high level of ambiguity, as they refer to specific narrow outcomes of the hidden economy, usually towards a specific...

The Center for the Study of Democracy, in collaboration with the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) elaborated a series of policy briefs analyzing the hidden economy in Macedonia. The topics encompass the issues of countering undeclared labour, tax evasion and fraud, media reporting on hidden economy and corruption, etc. According to estimates in 2013 the European Union lost around 1 trillion EUR in public revenues annually due to tax evasion and fraud. Given that EU's GDP summed up to 12.7 trillion EUR in 2013, tax evasion and fraud represented 7.9% of its annual GDP. The...

The Center for the Study of Democracy, in collaboration with the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) elaborated a series of policy briefs analyzing the hidden economy in Macedonia. The topics encompass the issues of countering undeclared labour, tax evasion and fraud, media reporting on hidden economy and corruption, etc. The current policy brief underlines that undeclared work, being one of the main manifestations of hidden economy, becomes the bull’s-eye for many countries focusing on reshaping their social and economic policies in order to tackle this issue, especially since...

The Center for the Study of Democracy, in collaboration with the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) elaborated a series of policy briefs analyzing the hidden economy in Macedonia. The topics encompass the issues of countering undeclared labour, tax evasion and fraud, media reporting on hidden economy and corruption, etc. The current policy brief provides an overview of the hidden economy in Macedonia, including some of its main causes and consequences. At the same time, it offers a macroeconomic overview of the characteristics considered to favor the prevalence of the hidden...

Whistle blowing is one of the most effective methods to expose and combat corruption and other types of wrongdoing that harm or threaten the public interest. The publication, prepared by SELDI's partner the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative and Blueprint for Free Speech, notes the growing public support throughout the region to combat corruption and make public administrations more transparent. According to the authors, this trend has opened meaningful opportunities to improve legal protection for whistleblowers. At the same time, government agencies, CSOs and journalism organisations are...

Blamed for many of the country’s problems, but at the same time under-researched and ineptly understood, the hidden economy phenomenon has, for many years, been insufficiently tackled by Macedonian academic and political elites. During the past few years, a renewed interest in the topic has led towards its more systematic treatment by institutions, but still largely based on approximations, lack of coordination between institutions and under-evaluation of policy measures. This treatment of the problem opens the floor to many speculations regarding the effectiveness of policies and their...