Cross-border cooperation – the barriers analysis and the recommendations

La cuestión se refiere a las barreras que limitan el proceso de cooperación transfronteriza (CBC) en las eurorregiones. Se han identificado dos tipos de barreras que provienen del entorno transfronterizo y las circunstancias específicas de la CBC en las eurorregiones. Estas barreras se identifican y analizan con referencia a los objetivos estratégicos de la Eurorregión de Cieszyn Silesia, situada en la frontera polaco-checa. El objetivo de este documento es señalar las posibles formas de limitar las principales barreras que obstaculizan el logro de los objetivos de la eurorregión, gracias al compromiso de los tres principales interesados en la cooperación transfronteriza. Los resultados de la investigación se analizan en comparación con otras investigaciones relativas a la Eurorregión EUROACE, situada entre los territorios portugués y español. La investigación muestra que en ambas Eurorregiones se identifican barreras "externas" similares al desarrollo de la cooperación transfronteriza, que son características de las regiones periféricas, distantes de los centros de decisión nacionales y regionales. Al mismo tiempo, el estudio identificó barreras 'internas' al desarrollo de la cooperación transfronteriza, que afectan más fuertemente a los objetivos sociales de la cooperación y que pueden reducirse a nivel local mediante una hábil política de los gobiernos locales que debería crear el desarrollo de las eurorregiones y movilizar a las organizaciones no gubernamentales y a los empresarios para la cooperación.The issue concerns the barriers limiting the process of cross-border cooperation (CBC) in Euroregions. There are two identified kinds of barriers coming out from the cross-border environment and the specific CBC circumstances in Euroregions. These barriers are identified and analysed with reference to the strategic goals of Cieszyn Silesia Euroregion, located on the Polish-Czech border. The goal of this paper is to point out the possible ways to limit the key barriers hindering the achievement of Euroregion goals, thanks to the commitment of the three key CBC stakeholders. The results of the research are analysed in comparison with other research concerning EUROACE Euroregion, located between the Portuguese and Spanish territories. Research shows that in both Euroregions similar ‘external’ barriers to the development of cross-border cooperation are identified, which are characteristics of peripheral regions, distant from national and regional decision centres. At the same time, the study identified ‘internal’ barriers to the development of cross-border cooperation, which most strongly affect the social objectives of cooperation and can be reduced at the local level by a skilful policy of local governments that should create the development of Euroregions and mobilize non-governmental organizations and entrepreneurs for cooperation.peerReviewe

Institutional Technology and the Chains of Trust: Capital Markets and Privatization in Russia and the Czech Republic

The introduction of mass privatization policies in Russia and the Czech Republic depended on the creation of impersonal capital markets to finance the needs of privatized companies and to provide a secondary market for the trading of securities. Yet, mass privatization created the contradictory conditions of generating millions of poorly informed shareholders, with no efficient markets for the sale of the shares. The absence of financial markets created systematic pressures to move assets by illegal or non-transparent means to users who value them. Privatization created the incentives to destroy the financial markets critical to its success. A comparative case analysis of post-privatization market formation in both these countries demonstrates that the functional necessity for these markets does not engender their own creation. In the absence of institutional mechanisms of state regulation and trust, markets become arenas for political contests and economic manipulation. The irony of these policies is that a principal lesson has been that market reforms cannot create viable markets, only institutional formation can.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39719/3/wp335.pd

Institutional Technology and the Chains of Trust: Capital Markets and Privatization in Russia and the Czech Republic

The introduction of mass privatization policies in Russia and the Czech Republic depended on the creation of impersonal capital markets to finance the needs of privatized companies and to provide a secondary market for the trading of securities. Yet, mass privatization created the contradictory conditions of generating millions of poorly informed shareholders, with no efficient markets for the sale of the shares. The absence of financial markets created systematic pressures to move assets by illegal or non-transparent means to users who value them. Privatization created the incentives to destroy the financial markets critical to its success. A comparative case analysis of post-privatization market formation in both these countries demonstrates that the functional necessity for these markets does not engender their own creation. In the absence of institutional mechanisms of state regulation and trust, markets become arenas for political contests and economic manipulation. The irony of these policies is that a principal lesson has been that market reforms cannot create viable markets, only institutional formation can.

Privatization and Corporate Governance: The Lessons from Securities Market Failure

This paper analyzes the comparative experiences of Poland and the Czech Republic with voucher privatization. Because of a number of similarities between these two transitional economies, it finds their comparative experience to provide a useful natural experiment, with the critical distinguishing variable being their different approaches to regulatory controls. However, while their experiences have been very different, their substantive corporate law was very similar. The true locus of regulatory differences appears then to have been the area of securities market regulation, where their approaches differed dramatically. Re-examining the work of LaPorta, Lopez-de-Silanos, Shleifer & Vishny, this paper submits that (1) the homogenity of both common law systems and civil law systems has been overstated; (2) common law systems in particular differ widely in terms of substantive corporate law, but have converged functionally at the level of securities regulation; (3) dispersed ownership will likely not persist under civil law systems that contemplate concentrated ownership and hence do not address or discourage rent-seeking corporate control contests or other forms of expropriation from minority shareholders; and (4) such winner-take-all control contests are probably most feasibly addressed through self-enforcing structural protections, such as (following the Polish model) the transitional use of state-created controlling shareholders. Reformulating the thesis originally advanced by LaPorta, et al., this article argues that civil law systems are not inherently unprotective of minority shareholders, but rather protect shareholders only against the forms of abuse that were well-known in systems of concentrated ownership (i.e., typically, abuse by a dominating parent) and not against the abuses that typically characterize systems of dispersed ownership (i.e., managerial expropriation and theft of the control premium). Ultimately, there is a conceptual mismatch between civil law systems and the dispersed ownership created by voucher privatization

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of People With Disabilities: Report of a European Conference

[From Overview] The European Conference on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities was held in Warsaw, Poland, on 23-25 October 2003. The Conference was organized jointly by the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Social Policy of the Republic of Poland and the International Labour Organization’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in Geneva and Subregional Office in Budapest, in cooperation with the Central European Initiative. The overall purpose of the European Conference was to review the progress of legislation and practice over the past ten years in the field of vocational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities and the improvement of their labour market situation, particularly in countries in the process of transition; to discuss issues connected with the adjustment to European Union standards of legislation on the vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities; and to develop recommendations that would provide guidelines for activities and instruments aimed at promoting the vocational activity of persons with disabilities and supporting their employment