Union Accession Research Articles

Enhancing health system’s governance through demographic and health surveys in transitional European countries: The example of Albania

To inform policymakers well, there is a need to promote different types of health examination surveys as additional sources of valuable information which, otherwise, would not be available through routine/administrative statistics. This is especially important for former communist countries of South Eastern Europe including Albania, where the existing health information system (HIS) is weak. Among many efforts to strengthen the HIS in Albania, there is currently a commitment to undertake a second round of a nationwide Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). This survey will involve a nationwide representative sample of about 17,000 private households, where all women aged 15-59 years and their respective partners will be interviewed and examined. Externally, the upcoming Albanian DHS will contribute to the European Union accession requirements regarding provision of standardized and valid health information. Furthermore, the DHS will considerably enhance the core functions of the Albanian health system in line with the WHO recommendations. Internally, the DHS will promote societal participation and responsibility in transitional Albania. Importantly, the forthcoming survey will promote good governance including transparency, accountability and health system responsiveness. Also, the DHS will allow for collection of internationally valid and standardized baseline socio-demographic and health information for: assessment of future national trends; monitoring and evaluation of health programs and interventions; evidencing health disparities and inequities; and cross-national comparisons between Albania and different countries of the European Region. Ultimately, findings of the DHS will enable rational decision-making and evidence-based policy formulation in Albania including appropriate planning, prioritization and sound resource allocation. However, transfer of the information collected and implementation in public health policies and interventional programs is rather challenging for most of the countries, particularly for transitional post-communist countries of South Eastern Europe including Albania.

TRADE OPENESS FUNCTIONING TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC PROSPECTS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NEW EU MEMBER STATES

Given the developments in economic theory so far, the European Union (EU) accession process is believed to bring significant benefits to newcomers, especially in terms of fostering their economic growth, which is induced by abolishing import tariffs and other trade barriers, intensifying trade flows and ensuring a more efficient usage of resources. Although empirical evidence on these correlations is mixed, many in the new EU member states and in candidate countries hope that EU membership will pave the way towards their economic prosperity, which would ensure a meaningful reduction in the income gap between new and old EU members. Accordingly, trade liberalisation, which implies lower transaction costs, increased specialisation, scale economy, and competitive pressures, has become a priority, especially for the accessing economies which are traditionally less open in comparison to the economies which first joined the EU. This study aims to assess the impact of trade openness, measured through the dynamics of exports and imports, on the economic growth of the last three member countries to join the EU (Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia) by employing panel data for the period before and after their accession (1997-2017). The results of the study confirm the expansion of the sample countries’ trade flows after the accession, as well as a positive correlation between the dynamics of trade flows and gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Still, it can be concluded that the exploitation of the positive effects of trade openness is conditioned by the level of the countries’ pre-accession economic progress and other determining variables.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Hopes of European Union Accession: A Safeguard against the Country’s Implosion?

The prospect of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s accession to the European Union encapsulates a pivotal chapter in the nation’s trajectory. As the country navigates the intricate path toward EU membership, it faces a myriad of challenges and opportunities that extend beyond mere geopolitical realignment. This journey involves addressing complex issues such as political stability, governance reforms, rule of law and economic development. The significance of this process lies not only in its potential to reshape Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political and economic landscape but also in the broader implications for regional stability and the consolidation of European values in the Western Balkans. In this context, the journey towards EU accession for Bosnia and Herzegovina is a multifaceted endeavour, reflecting both the aspirations and complexities inherent in the pursuit of a European future.

Türkiye’de Okul Öncesi Dönemde İki Dillilik Üzerine Yapılan Lisansüstü Tezlerin ve Makalelerin İncelenmesi (2007-2021)

İki dillilik, tüm dünyada disiplinler arası çalışmalarla tüm hızıyla çeşitli açılardan araştırılmaya devam eden konuların başında gelmektedir. İletişim ve ulaşımın hızla yaygınlaştığı, ülkelerin ve milletlerin birbirleriyle hiç olmadığı kadar daha fazla iletişime girdiği bir dönemde iki dillilik araştırmacılar tarafından ilgiyle incelenmeye devam etmektedir. Jeopolitik konumu, Avrupa Birliği’ne giriş sürecine uyumlanma politikaları ve yoğun göç alması sonucu, Türkiye’de iki dillilik kavramı ana okulları için de çeşitli açılardan tartışılmaya başlanmıştır. Bu araştırmanın amacı, okul öncesi dönemde iki dillilikle ilgili az araştırmanın yapıldığı ülkemizde 2007-2021 yılları arasında okul öncesi dönemde iki dillilikle ilgili yapılmış lisansüstü tezlerin ve makalelerin kapsamlarını ortaya koymaktır. Bu doğrultuda, yirmi beş lisansüstü tezi ve yirmi bir makaleye ulaşılmış ve bu çalışmalar, “yıllara, yöntemlerine, konularına, örneklem/çalışma grubuna, veri toplama aracına, veri analiz tekniklerine, inceledikleri dillere ve lisansüstü tezlerin yapıldığı bölümlere göre dağılım” değişkenlerine göre incelenmiştir. Araştırmanın sonucunda, 2020 ve 2021 yıllarında daha çok çalışma yapıldığı, vaka incelemelerinin daha çok tercih edildiği, dil gelişiminin çeşitli açılardan incelenmesi konusunun daha çok seçildiği, en çok çocukların örneklem olarak ele alındığı, veri toplama aracı olarak en çok ölçeklerin tercih edildiği, veri analiz tekniği olarak en çok testlerin tercih edildiği, çalışmaların Türkçe-İngilizce dilleri arasında daha çok yapıldığı ve lisansüstü tezlerinde okul öncesi eğitimi bölümünde çalışmaların daha fazla yapıldığı tespit edilmiştir.

Side Effects of “Phantom Pains”: How Bulgarian Historical Mythology Derails North Macedonia’s EU Accession

Abstract What happens if historical daydreams derail the vector of European integration? The latest round in the dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia provides an insight. This analysis discusses Bulgaria’s veto on European Union (EU) accession talks with North Macedonia, first declared in 2019, and its manifold consequences. Bulgaria tied its consent to North Macedonia’s accession to the EU with the country first capitulating to Bulgarian demands concerning its history and identity. This revived arguments from the 1960s and 1970s. Bulgaria’s demands led to a nationalist counter-reaction in North Macedonia, while at the same time complicating the work of a joint expert commission on shared history established in 2017. The author highlights the unenviable nature of the position of the Macedonian members in the commission, caught as they are between their academic ethos and the diplomatic priorities of their country. The analysis concludes with remarks on the implications for the EU of Bulgaria’s “phantom pains” over Macedonia.

Competitiveness, fiscal policy and corruption: evidence from Central and Eastern European countries

Research background: The transformations induced by global challenges call for new approaches towards competitiveness and thus require a consistent rethinking of strategies and mechanisms so that they could be better adapted to the constantly changing context. Prior to the European Union (EU) accession, the Central and Eastern European (CEE) states began a broad process of economic reforms, including trade liberalization, mass privatization, exchange rate liberalization, all of which led to a wider opening to new markets, the creation of new opportunities for production and to ensuring the competitiveness of companies on foreign markets. By far, the most important step in the post-communist period was joining the EU, achieved after 2004. Over time, these states have faced, on the one hand, issues related to addressing systemic vulnerabilities, and on the other hand, finding the most appropriate measures to induce competitiveness. The influence of public policies on competitiveness is still an issue that needs to be debated, our study proposing to examine the reaction of external competitiveness to the increase of government spending and corruption. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of fiscal policies and corruption on the external competitiveness of the eleven countries from Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) for the period 1995?2020. The choice of this time interval is to better capture the trinomial relationship between competitiveness, fiscal policy and corruption before and after the process of integration of the CEE states into the EU. Methods: The methodology chosen is based on ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) with structural breaks, the period taken into account being 1995?2020. The Unit root test of augmented Dickey?Fuller ADF (2016) was used to assess the time series stationarity. The test developed by Bai and Perron (2003) is applied to detect structural breaks, by resorting to the LM test. The tests for the cointegration between the considered variables, using the ARDL model, proposed by Pesaran et al. (2001), were also part of the research. The causality test of Granger et al. (2000) was used to assess the conditionality between the indicators. By applying these methods, it was highlighted that, especially after 2007, in the states under analysis, expansionary fiscal policies have led to internal devaluations of the currency, which ultimately increased external competitiveness, measured as real effective exchange rate. Instead, corruption has a negative impact on competitiveness. Findings & value added: The obtained results point out the relationship between competitiveness, fiscal policy and corruption in CEE countries. In the case of those that have a high competitiveness, even if there are large government expenditures, there is also an economic environment conducive to the implementation of measures that generate added value on a large scale. Conversely, in countries where corruption is high, the impact of government fiscal policies on competitiveness is reduced due to the negative effects caused by this phenomenon. Our study brings at least two contributions to the literature. First of all, the research shows how a growth in public spending affects the competitiveness of CEE economies through the real exchange rate. Secondly, it takes into account the phenomenon of corruption applied to Eastern countries, emphasizing a decrease in the external competitiveness of these economies in response to the manifestation of corruption.

Struggles in the accounting arena: A geopolitical reading of Romanian accounting reforms

Transition economies have undertaken an accelerated series of reforms after the collapse of communism, aiming at the (re)construction of market institutions. In this paper we build on a geopolitical perspective, and on accounting profession literature to map the accounting reforms in post-communist Romania. We find that accounting reforms are reflecting broader processes of globalisation and Europeanization. By examining the ‘territorial’ disputes over the Romanian accounting reform and the successive leadership of groups of experts from France and United Kingdom we draw attention on the drivers of accounting reforms. These are not limited to the technical aspects of accounting and the interests of the actors, but have their roots embedded in the broader geopolitical setting. In the case of Romania, the European Union accession guides the path and pace of accounting reforms, having as general background the globalisation of accounting regulation.

Scapegoats and Guinea Pigs: Free Movement as a Pathway to Confined Labour Market Citizenship for European Union Accession Migrants in the UK

Abstract Migrants in the UK from the Central and Eastern European states that acceded to the European Union in 2004 and 2007 often have close proximity to precarity. This contribution illustrates that the positioning of the migrants in the casualised labour market has not occurred by accident but has been brought about by the (disingenuous) way in which nationals of the accession states were permitted access to the UK labour market. The positioning has been further maintained through the increasingly restrictive direction of the intertwined EU-UK response to claims for support from vulnerable EU migrant citizens. This piece presents the idea of ‘confined labour market citizenship’ as a way to understand the way many migrants have experienced working and living in the UK in the years following EU enlargement. This concept, it is argued, is able to capture: the role of the UK state as it regulated post-accession migration rules and implemented laws relating to social security entitlement; the influence of the broader EU framework on free movement and citizenship of the Union; and the impact of employers ‘on the ground’ in creating and exacerbating conditions of precarity and exploitation. The analysis throughout the paper exposes how EU8 and EU2 migrants have served as scapegoats for the result of the Brexit referendum, deflecting attention from the instrumentalisation of the migration issue by politicians. They have also been guinea pigs, testing out a confined version of EU citizenship with less tolerance for those in precarious and insecure work.

Rethinking regional wage determinants: regional market potential versus trade partners’ potential

ABSTRACT This paper reconsiders the relationship between individual wages and regional market access. We focus on Poland – a country that has experienced profound changes in market accessibility over the last two decades, first as a consequence of European Union accession in 2004, and second as a result of the unprecedented development of the major road transport network. Using data over the period 2000–15 we find that the positive relationship between wages and regional market access disappears after 2004. At the same time, individual wages begin to be positively correlated with the market potential of Poland’s main trading partners.

Changes in the Price of Food and Agricultural Raw Materials in Poland in the Context of the European Union Accession

Shaping of prices of agricultural raw materials results from the impact of a wide range of factors that influence prices in different links in the marketing chain. Political changes, especially sudden ones, which abruptly changed farming conditions, were one of the reasons for the asymmetry in price transmission. The main purpose of the paper was to estimate the trends in changes in agricultural raw materials prices in comparison to the trends in food prices in Poland in two time frames, differing in political and economic conditions: before (1999–2004) and after Poland’s accession (2005–2019) to the European Union. It was found that the accession to the EU improved the situation of farmers in agricultural markets. There was a reversal of downward price trends in agricultural raw materials and their stabilization. In the years 1995–2005, for most of the prices of agricultural raw materials and food under the analysis, the differences between the trends were not statistically significant. This situation was consistent with the model of market operating under perfect competition. The trends in the prices of wheat, rolls, and bread, as well as the prices of livestock for slaughter-pigs and roast beef were the only exceptions. In turn, in the years 2005–2019 statistically significant differences between the trends in the prices of agricultural raw materials and food were recorded for wheat, bread, and flour; milk, butter, and cottage cheese; eggs and egg retail prices; as well as livestock for slaughter, cattle, and sausages. No statistically significant differences were found for the remaining relationships of the analyzed prices of agricultural raw materials and food. These data indicate a different level of price transmission depending on the product group.

ZAŠTITA TRADICIJSKIH PROIZVODA PRIMJENOM ZEMLJOPISNIH OZNAKA U EUROPSKOJ UNIJI NAKON STUPANJA NA SNAGU ŽENEVSKOG AKTA NA LISABONSKI SPORAZUM

The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of protection of geographical indications marking traditional products in the European Union, especially after the entry into force of the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications. The current possibilities of protection at the international level serve as a starting point. The most significant changes brought about by the Geneva Act have been indicated in the paper and the consequences of the European Union accession to this international agreement have been analysed in detail. The research shows the advantages in terms of protection of geographical indications after the accession of the European Union to the Geneva Act only related to traditional agricultural and food products, whereas, for example, traditional handicrafts, souvenirs and other non-agricultural products do not benefit therefrom. Moreover, the results of the research show that while the European Union has managed to expand the policy of protection of geographical indications at a global level through the adoption of the Geneva Act, its position has been weakened by the fact that there is no sui generis system of protection of designations of origin and geographical indications for non-agricultural products in the European Union. The paper also analyses the advantages, disadvantages and limitations of the traditional products protection through the geographical indications protection marking them, and it emphasizes the importance of geographical indications protection for indigenous non-agricultural products (souvenirs) for tourist destinations such as the Republic of Croatia. The conclusion of the research supports the need for establishing a system of geographical indications protection for non-agricultural products at the European Union level in order to enable the protection of geographical indications for all traditional products in the European Union through the established system of international registration.

Genetically Modified Crops in Romania before and after the Accession of the European Union

Modern biotechnology entered the world science arena after 1972, and in less than 22 years the first genetically modified crop was placed on the market. The analysis of relevant biosafety portals and official and scientific documents was applied in this study to reveal positive and negative issues of the Romanian biosafety framework before and after the European Union (EU) accession. The success in cultivating highly productive GM soybean was rapidly embraced by Romania between 1999 and 2005. Before 2007, Romania was cited among the Mega Biotech Countries, with a cultivation of 87.500 ha. After the accession to the European Union, Romania stopped any GM crop cultivation. There was an immense effort to harmonize with the EU regulatory framework between 2005 and 2007. The monitoring system for GM crops has been in place since 2007. Public research on aspects of GMOs started before 1996 and continues to develop. The analysis of our results supports the idea that Romania is a perfect example of a country committed to embracing GM crop cultivation for 7 years, followed by almost complete phasing out of GM crop cultivation to comply with all requirements for EU accession in less than 1 year.

РЕФОРМУВАННЯ ФІНАНСУВАННЯ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ В УКРАЇНІ: ВІД РАДЯНСЬКОЇ МОДЕЛІ ФІНАНСУВАННЯ ДО ФІНАНСУВАННЯ НА ОСНОВІ РЕЗУЛЬТАТІВ

The article focuses on a specific reform in the Ukrainian higher education sector that has taken place in recent years. The reform is aimed at changing the funding model for higher education institutions. The previous outdated Soviet-era funding model inherited by Ukraine in the 90s has been criticized greatly in the last decades. Hence, the current implementation of performance-based funding in Ukraine is considered a significant move toward better public sector management. This paper starts with an overview of existing funding models in the higher education sector, analyzing their advantages and disadvantages. Then it examines current trends in change of funding mechanisms in the higher education sector. Finally, it discovers a considerable reshaping of the higher education funding in Ukraine that has shifted from the Soviet-era funding mechanism to modern performance-based funding. The reform is a logical consequence of a broader international reform agenda of higher education funding and adherence of Ukraine to the European path. The reform in the Ukrainian higher education system resulted from new liberal economic and political agenda that replaced Soviet-era ideas, combined with the impact of European Union accession conditions. Therefore, the Ukrainian higher education system, as well as the other Ukrainian public sector systems, should be harmonized with European Union’s recommendations. Currently, it is difficult to reach a definitive conclusion on whether the PBF is a sufficient mechanism for funding higher education sector or not. To obtain a complete picture, it is crucial to analyze the PBF in different contexts. Despite the debatable nature of performance-based funding, no funding model can fit all contexts and institutional landscapes. Hence, it may always be essential to adjust and keep a funding mechanism up to date by the institutional demands and modern trends and analyze the intended and unintended effects of evolving funding mechanisms, particularly in the post-Soviet landscape because it is recognized as a new call for researchers in examining higher education sector reforms.

Europeanization, Democratization, and Backsliding: Trajectories and Framings of Gender Equality Institutions in Poland

AbstractThis article investigates how democratic backsliding has affected Europeanizing gender equality institutions. It analyzes Polish public discourse on the Plenipotentiary for Equality, a policy agency that aims to promote gender equality and antidiscrimination. The article traces its framing and trajectories through European Union accession, until the ultraconservative and nationalist backlash in recent years. Post-2015, Polish governments have mainstreamed anti-gender equality rhetoric as a strategy to legitimize systemic changes and democratic backsliding. I demonstrate how discursive and institutional linkages between Europeanization, democratization, and gender equality allow not only progress, but can also lead to opportunity moments for democratic and equality backsliding.

Analyzing varieties of (post-enlargement) Europeanization in CEE advocacy organizations across policy fields

This article aims to explain Europeanization processes among advocacy organizations from four post-communist states—Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic—which have been subject to strong Europeanization pressures before and after the European Union accession. The authors aim to identify how Central and Eastern European organized interests have adapted their organizational logics to a changing environment in the post-enlargement phase. Specifically, we address the following questions: How do various levels and dimensions of Europeanization of interest organizations differ across policy fields and countries and what determines this diversity? What are the strongest predictors of the specific forms of Europeanization? Against this background, we test how the specific characteristics of CEE advocacy organizations correlate with the different dimensions of Europeanization—its intensity, ways of occurring, variants, determinants, and outcomes.

Exchange rate exposure for exporting and domestic firms in central and Eastern Europe

We analyze the exchange rate exposure of firms in Russia and European Union (EU) accession countries from Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. We control for potential effects of exchange rate regimes, the subprime mortgage and Russian financial crisis, EU accession, and the turn-of-the-year effect. We find significant exposure for 60% and 52% of firms in the CEEC-3 and Russia, respectively. Magnitude and direction of firms' exposure depends on the currency pair (versus either the euro or U.S. dollar) and differs between CEEC-3 and Russia. Differences may result from dissimilar exposure channels in the respective economies.

“Red Vienna” and the rise of the populist right

While research on the spatial variation in populist right voting focuses on the role of “places left behind”, this paper examines the spatial distribution of populist right voting in one of the fastest growing capital cities of Europe, Vienna. Combining detailed electoral data of the 2017 national elections at the statistical ward level and the location of municipal housing units, the paper examines why the populist right “Austrian Freedom Party” (FPOE) performs better in the former bulwarks of socialism, in the municipal housing areas of “Red Vienna”. The paper links the socio-demographic development of Vienna and its municipal housing policy with election results and explores three possible reasons for elevated FPOE shares in municipal housing areas: rising housing costs pushed an increasing number of socially and economically vulnerable into the municipal housing sector and so increased the FPOE voter pool in those areas; European Union accession and changes in regulation allowed foreign citizens to apply to and obtain municipal housing flats triggering a backlash from Austrian municipal housing residents; and municipal housing is located in disadvantaged neighbourhoods further enhancing the FPOE voter pool. The paper demonstrates that higher FPOE vote shares in areas with high municipal housing shares are due primarily to higher shares of formally less educated residents, neighbourhood context and they are marginally elevated in those municipal housing areas experiencing a larger influx of foreign residents.

From “Original Democracy” to Euro-Atlantic Integration: Foreign Policy Issues during the Romanian Presidential Campaigns (1990–2004)

Abstract The article analyzes from a diachronic point of view the way in which foreign policy issues evolved during the presidential elections in post-communist Romania. In this chronological demarcation, the author opted to start with 1990, when Ion Iliescu,the first president after the revolution, promoted a form of isolation of the country, proposing a local model of democracy building, and to end with 2004, when the NATO and European Union (EU) accession became realities assumed by all political parties. During this 14-year period, the presidential election was the type of vote that caught most people’s attention, and foreign policy gradually found its place among the topics of interest, along with economic reform and the fight against corruption. Romania’s exit from the “grey zone” was slow and involved several stages, such as the abandonment of the conservative discourse of Ion Iliescu and its replacement with a Euro-enthusiast one, the assumption by political parties of the “spirit of Snagov,” and the reconciliation with neighboring states. The main primary sources of the study are electoral programs, debate shows, and especially articles from the press of the time, such as Adevărul, România liberă, Evenimentul zilei, Ziua, România Mare, and so on.

Soner Cagaptay, The New Sultan: Erdogan and The Crisis of Modern Turkey

Reviewed by: The New Sultan: Erdogan and The Crisis of Modern Turkey by Soner Cagaptay Hatice Mete Soner Cagaptay. The New Sultan: Erdogan and The Crisis of Modern Turkey. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017. 256 pp. Cloth, $35.00. ISBN: 978-1784538262. The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey provides a road map of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's electoral successes and increasing political power.1 It is an extensive study that investigates the main factors and challenges in Turkish politics that have contributed to shaping Erdogan's political road map. As a historian by training, the author opens the layers of Turkish modern history starting from the 1920s until early 2017 while sharing Erdogan's story with the readers. The book is organized around giving an introduction about major developments in Turkish history, and explaining how these developments had affected Erdogan's life. It looks at Erdogan's story, and Turkish modern history, in periodic order starting from his childhood years, in Kasimpasa, a district in Istanbul, and in Rize, where he was originally from, to be elected as mayor of Istanbul, and finally into his presidency. The author displayed, for instance, how growing up in Kasimpasa, a "rough-hewn, conservative area" (p. 16), has shaped Erdogan's perception of the "other," which is the Westernized, [End Page 282] Kemalist, and secular side of Turkey. The author did not only reveal political developments in Turkish history but also provided glimpses of economic and social developments that had left a mark on Erdogan. It traces Erdogan's life story along with major events in Turkish history from the state's attempts to stamp out grassroot movements of Islam in the 1920s, through a street fight between militant leftist and rightist groups in the 1970s, the military's frequent intervention into politics through coup d'états and memorandums, and the Turkish economy's experience with neoliberal policies, and finally into the emergence of Erdogan's "conservative democracy." The author provides major turning points that have deeply affected not only Erdogan's political success and Turkish modern history but also Turkish foreign policy. One of the major points was political Islam coming to Turkey in the 1970s as a possible pillar against rising communism within the Cold War context, and the marginalization of Imam Hatip graduates, state-created religious schools used by governments as an instrument to control the religion in the public sphere. While religion has been an important element in Erdogan's personality, with the injection of Islam into politics by the 1980 junta, it has become a crucial factor in Turkish politics as well. Other turning points that shaped Erdogan's political life and modern history stated in the book include dissolution of the Turkish right in the 1990s along with the ten percent threshold that was put into effect after the 1980 coup d'état, 1997 soft coup, 2001 financial crisis, and the European Union (EU) accession process. The author explains, for instance, how the ten percent threshold, implemented to block Kurdish nationalist parties from gaining access to parliament, had backfired so unexpectedly and rather acted as an impediment for center-right and center-left parties entering the parliament in the 2002 elections, which resulted in the AKP's getting the majority of the parliamentary seats and the beginning of the AKP governance. Another interesting theme in the book is comparisons of Ataturk's modernization project and Erdogan's "New Turkey" project. The author emphasizes that "the irony is that while claiming to revive the pre-Ataturk empire, Erdogan is actually reviving the caricature of the Ottomans that he was taught by the Kemalists" (pp. 196–97). He explains that Kemalism no longer serves as a glue that brings together different ethnic and religious groups in Turkish society, as Erdogan relies on religion and the pre-Ataturk past to bind his electorates. Apart from Erdogan's story, the book involves details about other political leaders of center-right and Islamist parties such as former prime minister and leader of the Democrat Party (1946–61), Adnan Menderes, former president of Turkey, Suleyman Demirel, and founder of the Islamist National Order Party (1970–71) Necmettin Erbakan, who...

COMPETITIVENESS OF THE TEXTILE AND CLOTHING INDUSTRY IN BULGARIA AFTER THE EU ACCESSION AND IN TIMES OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the changes in Bulgaria’s competitiveness in the textile and clothing (T&C) industry after the European Union accession and in times of the coronavirus pandemic covering the period 2007-2020. In methodological terms the study uses various indicators including production value, employment, labour productivity, relative trade balance, revealed comparative advantage index, among others. Wherever possible the analysis is done in a comparative perspective benchmarking the performance of the sector in Bulgaria with that in Romania. The results show that the Bulgarian T&C industry has undergone a significant transformation in the last two decades increasing its productivity but being subject to significant jobs downsizing. While still competitive on the European market, with rising wages and production costs, the comparative advantages of the industry are gradually eroding. The coronavirus pandemic has hit the apparel subsector very hard while some textile producers which managed to shift their production to personal protective equipment items managed it successfully. However, this is a temporary solution. The T&C industry in Bulgaria is confronted with significant long-term challenges such as the green and the digital transformation, and the how it deals with them will determine the prospects of the sector.