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Rositsa Prodanova, Dimitar Kostov
ECONOMIC POLICIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION – CONCORDANCE OR DISCORDANCE?
Summary:
The series of severe global and regional crises of various nature in recent decades, as well as the erratic success of the various anti-crisis measures undertaken by the European Union raise the issue of examining the concordance among the Union's economic policies. This study examines the coordination between EU’s monetary and fiscal policy to reveal that it is weak, which can be attributed to some crisis resolution shortcomings. The reasons for this incoherence can be found both in the institutional structure of the European financial institutions and in some rigid strategies of the Union (unwillingness to pursue a common fiscal policy, frugal budget spending policies, etc.)
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Rumen Vyrbanov
THE USE OF THE INTERNET TO SUPPORT AND DEVELOP DEMOCRACY
Summary:
The realization of the idea of e-democracy is an important part of the information society, the establishment of which is a priority for the EU. The article analyses some of the aspects of e-democracy and their importance for strengthening democracy, democratic institutions and democratic processes.
Its primary objective is to determine the conditions for implementing of the idea of e-democracy in Bulgaria by defining the key problems related to e-democracy and the causes thereof.
A large amount of data was subjected to comparative analysis to determine the current status of the information society, e-government and e-ser-vices in Bulgaria and in other European Union countries.
The author has put emphasis on the essential role of social media in the process of implementation of various forms of electronic democracy.
The author's main thesis is that information and communication tech-nologies (ICT) are a prerequisite and a very important factor for the develop-ment of e-democracy. However, the use of the Internet in various forms of democratic life depends heavily on the degree of the e-readiness of the country, its efficient e-government and e-services, the sustained interest of its citizens in participating in its governance and their requirements for transparency and free access to information, its government and civil organizations, the adequacy of its legislation, the level of development of its civil society and its drive for continuous strengthening and development of democratic institu-tions.
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Zornitsa Petkova
The Joint Operation of Institutions – Factors
for Increasing Revenue Collectibility
Summary:
Major sources of revenue for the state budget include taxes collected from the National Revenue Authority and the Customs Agency. These account for nearly 90 per cent of the revenue of the state budget. The specialist structures of the Ministry of the Interior (the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and the Economic Police) play an important role in minimising the losses incurred to the state budget through non-payment of customs duties on smuggled goods. This role is crucial in exercising control on excisable goods due to the large size of duties levied on them. Hence, one of the factors for improving the fiscal efficiency of customs administration and preventing and detecting customs and excise violations is the implementation of joint operations with the National Revenue Agency and the Min¬istry of the Interior.
This paper aims to assess the current condition of joint operations conducted by the Customs Authority, the NRA, and the Ministry of the Interior in order to prove their efficiency in terms of the supervision exercised by the customs authority.
