The EU and Civil Society in the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict

This paper deals with the role of the EU in supporting civil society in the case of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. It analyses the patterns of development of civil society actors that played a direct or indirect role in the development of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. In the case of Georgia the paper focuses on NGOs representing the interests of internally displaced persons and civil society players involved in promoting dialogue with the Abkhaz. In the case of Abkhazia, the paper focuses on the development of Abkhaz civil society, the relative strength of which is a mini-phenomenon in itself, as well as the Abkhaz approaches to dialogue with Georgia. The paper then outlines the main EU activities vis-à-vis the civil society actors on both sides of the conflict. The paper concludes that in the absence of strong EU political engagement in conflict-resolution, EU assistance to civil society could not prevent the re-escalation of the conflict and the radicalisation of the Abkhaz and Georgian societies. However EU assistance to civil society contributed to the (parallel and separate) strengthening of civil society on both sides of the conflict lines, which can be considered an achievement in itself, however modest.

Romania's Exchange Rate Policy towards its European Monetary Union Membership - Prospects and Challenges

This paper has a focus in considering the implications of the European integration for the present and future exchange rate arrangements between the European Union and Romania as an emerging country. The objective of this paper is to examine rather medium-term outlook for exchange rate arrangement involving Romania in its European membership process and the EU in the new single currency environment. The national currency has a managed floating exchange rate regime against the single European currency, compatible with the inflation targeting policy currently promoted in Romania. Romania will also have to register a quite problematic coexistence of inflation targeting with an exchange rate stability after joining the Exchange Rate Mechanism II. An exchange rate arrangement involving the national currency and the single European currency must be quite flexible to the economic conditions of Romanian economy and to the policy commitments of the authorities. The arrangement will also have to be compatible with the price stability objective of the European monetary policy and will need to strengthen the national authorities’ capacity of achieving the structural adjustment. The flexibility within the ERM II will allow all of these ends to be fulfilled. Joining the ERM II and thus registering a formal link to the single European currency, the Romanian economy will enjoy a greater credibility in the context of an anchor for macroeconomic policies. The ERM II has also a few disadvantages. A hard pegging with the euro inside the ERM II wouldn’t be appropriate given the incapacity of the emerging market system of determining an equilibrium level for the exchange rate of the national currency against the euro. A real exchange rate appreciation could also generate tensions as a result of price tendency and differences in productivity growth between the national economy and the Euro Area countries.exchange rate policy, EMU

Pairing and specific heat in hot nuclei

The thermodynamics of pairing phase-transition in nuclei is studied in the canonical ensemble and treating the pairing correlations in a finite-temperature variation after projection BCS approach (FT-VAP). Due to the restoration of particle number conservation, the pairing gap and the specific heat calculated in the FT-VAP approach vary smoothly with the temperature, indicating a gradual transition from the superfluid to the normal phase, as expected in finite systems. We have checked that the predictions of the FT-VAP approach are very accurate when compared to the results obtained by an exact diagonalization of the pairing Hamiltonian. The influence of pairing correlations on specific heat is analysed for the isotopes $^{161,162}$Dy and $^{171,172}$Yb. It is shown that the FT-VAP approach, applied with a level density provided by mean field calculations and supplemented, at high energies, by the level density of the back-shifted Fermi gas model, can approximate reasonably well the main properties of specific heat extracted from experimental data. However, the detailed shape of the calculated specific heat is rather sensitive to the assumption made for the mean field.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure

Considerations Concerning the Sphere of the Activities of Internal Auditing

The internal audit has known a continuous evolution, the sphere of the specific activities being gradually extended from the financial and accounting area to the entity’s operational area. This aspect is significantly influenced, among others, by the subordination means of the department of internal audit within the entity, as well as by the range of services which could be offered to the decisional factors. In this sense, the present material debates the connection between the position of the function within the entity and the exigencies which are imposed as far as the assessment of the objectives for the internal auditors is concerned. In the same time, we will talk about the range of services which have been offered by the internal auditors both from the perspective of the needs for their beneficiaries, as well as of the independence which characterises this kind of services. In the same time, we have approached the range of the specific services for the missions of this nature. The approach concerning the positioning of the internal audit aims, on one side, at its role as a main instrument of the entity as far as the monitoring of the risks is concerned and the assurance of the quality for the internal control devices which have been instituted by the entity, and on the other side, the need to assure the adequate independence for the accomplishment of such desiderata. As far as the services which have been offered by the auditors are concerned, within this material, they are subjected to the analysis from the perspective of their beneficiaries, as well as under the aspect of the compatibility between the assurance services and the consultancy services.subordination, auditing committee, consultancy.

THE NEED FOR PUBLIC DEBT MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Public debt is created when the necessary resources for the socio-economic development of a state are greater than the opportunities that exist at that time. The destination of the necessary resources acquired from foreign markets can be either consumption by raising the standard of living (on short term) or investments in order to reduce the discrepancies in relation to the European Union through investments in infrastructure, jobs, human and technical capital development. The scientific research aims to clarify several key objectives, namely: the theoretical concept and its belonging in the governance politics; the dynamics of public debt in Romania and the identification of specific features of the indebtedness decision, the influence of the current global economic crisis on the Romanian economy, the analysis of Romania's public debt sustainability integrated in the European structures, and proposals for action in order to return as soon as possible to a positive economic dynamics with direct impact on people's standard of living. The theme of this research is contemporary in the context of the financial and economical global crisis and the difficulties in overcoming this period. The need to coordination the fiscal and budgetary policies in Romania, the awareness that the accumulation of a large public debt presents a threat to future generations, the increase of the tax pressure over a market that trends towards globalization and the impact that the aging of the population will have on the public finances sparked public controversy, both in the academic environment and in the media. To continuously borrow resources and maintain a stable level for them requires a sustainable public debt, an important objective of any state's tax policy. A sustainable public debt is the result of the market and of the fiscal and budgetary policy decisions. Although the sustainability of public finances and implicitly of public debt has been an issue extensively debated for over a century, they currently remain vague concepts. Although, intuitively, it is natural to consider that a fiscal policy is sustainable if it avoids financial collapse, there is no generally accepted definition in terms of sustainable public debt, respectively a sustainable level of public debt. The methodology of this research is stressed by the large number of statistical data on public debt dynamics used in the analysis, relevant in this regard are the national and international databases: the National Bank of Romania, Ministry of Public Finances, World Bank, Euro stat, the statistical database of the European Commission, the database of the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the normative documents consulted in order to ensure the terminological accuracy of the concepts, the numerous theoretical and empirical studies of Romanian and foreign specialists, the views and arguments of scientific researchers with high experience in the field. The personal contribution to the researched field is present throughout this work. Thus, I aimed to clarify some theoretical aspects of the issues addressed, of some concepts and economic notions to elucidate the studied phenomenon by using a large number of statistical data in order to analyses the dynamics of public debt in Romania, in comparison with other former communist countries and to formulate proposals for a long-term sustained recovery and a sustainable economic growth.public debt, budget deficit, external financing, public debt management, degree of indebtedness, public debt service

Managerial and Public Officials and Employees of Private Sector

For a long time, European companies have found that civil servants are bound by the state and can not be compared to private sector employees. This group of public employees was seen as a professional group for maintaining the rule of law and government policy implementation. Therefore, civil servants were required to have high standards and integrity to be entrusted with a single mission: work for the common interest. In this conception, where the state was separated from society and citizens, it was inconceivable that civil servants have the right to strike or the right to collective bargaining agreements.private sector, management.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PLANNING OF THE FINANCIAL AUDIT MISSION

In order to exercise efficiently the financial audit it is required to adequately plan it, for each individual mission. This document synthesizes the essential aspects which must be taken into account by the auditors and divides them into groups, according to the following paths of action: obtaining a detailed knowledge of the entity audited; estimating an acceptable level of the audit risk; understanding the internal control system of the entity; determining rigorously of the terms of the mission.audit, planning, particularities, risk, engagement