Perceived Effects of Croatian Customs Services Reform: the Opinion of Forwarders from Istarska County

The reforms of the public sector rank among the most complex problems Croatia has to face in the process of transition and accession to the EU. One of the recent reforms, the Customs Service Reform, offers insights into some of the achieved improvements and may serve as a guideline for reformers in other areas of public management. This research provides evidence of “customer satisfaction” with the functioning of the Croatian Customs System. Conclusions have been drawn based on the responses of 31 forwarders from Istarska County using a 19-item Likert scale. According to their opinion, services have improved in several aspects during the past few years, and accordingly the results can be interpreted as an indication of success of reform efforts.public services; quality perception; reform results; customs services

Euro-zone crisis: Past trends, current developments and perspectives

After its launching in 1999 and rather successful decade-long performance, the euro-zone entered in 2010 into its first and extremely profound crisis. The crisis has been dragging on for almost four years and there isstill a lot of work to be done in order to reach a comprehensive and sustainable solution. The main objective of the article is threefold. Firstly, to present the main design failures of the original institutional structure of the euro-zone and its economic governance, secondly, to analyze the process of the euro-zone crisis management from its ad-hoc approach in 2010 to a more systematic approach applied over the recent 3 years, and thirdly, to discuss the key elements for a sustainable resolution of the euro-zone crisis. Looking in a more medium-term perspective, the solution of the euro-zone crisis is associated with an appropriate switch of the policy mix it applies. On the long-run, the resolution of the euro-zone crisis depends on the stabilisation of the public finances and, more specifically, on the reduction of the public debt level

Kakovostno delovanje nepridobitnih - nevladnih organizacij kot osnovni pogoj za obstanek in njihov nadaljnji razvoj

Kakovostno delovanje nepridobitne - nevladne organizacije je osnovni pogoj za njeno delovanje in nadaljnji razvoj. Poznavanje pojma kakovosti, opredeljevanja kakovosti storitev in načinov presojanja kakovosti delovanja organizacij je izredno pomembno, vendar so za delo organizacije nujno potrebne tudi konkretne raziskave in uporaba teoretičnih znanj. Prispevek predstavlja raziskavo o Poznavanju taborniške organizacije v Sloveniji. Raziskava je bila izvedena na reprezentativnem vzorcu 1160 gospodinjstev, proporcionalno so bila zajeta gospodinjstva iz vseh regij Slovenije. Podatki, pridobljeni na osnovi te raziskave, so koristni za prihodnje načrtovanje in usmerjanje delovanja taborniške organizacije

Sulfur-house operation /

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Croatian demographic losses in 20th century

Rad se bavi hrvatskim demografskim gubicima u 20. stoljeću. Analizirani su svi ratovi u kojima je Hrvatska sudjelovala te današnje stanje. Navedene su i moguće revitalizacijske mjere kojima bi se Hrvatska mogla izvući iz demografske krize u kojoj se danas nalazi.This paper deals with Croatian demographic losses in 20th century. All the wars in which Croatia participed have beed analyzed and also today's state. There are also possible revitalization measures that could bring Croatia out of the demographic crisis in which it is today

Financing of the European Union Budget.

This study is concerned with the future financing of the EU budget, including possible budgetary correction mechanisms, and is intended to feed into the budget review. The revenue side of the EU budget comprises several elements, all of which need to be assessed in appraising the functioning of the current system and whether it should be reformed. They include the revenue instruments used - the ‘own resources’ (OR) - and how they are set, the means by which net contributions deemed to be excessive are adjusted, and how to ensure that the EU’s revenue balances its expenditure as required by Art. 268 TEC. Such balanced budget rules are often applied to control the expenditure of sub-national governments in multi-level fiscal systems Work done in the course of this study has included an extensive literature survey and examination of relevant previous work, empirical research and policy analysis. The empirical work comprised a mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis, extensive dialogue with practitioners, and a survey directed to officials (mainly, but by no means exclusively, in finance ministries) in Member States. This research has been used to investigate both how well the current system is working and to try to provide a systematic basis for analysing options for reform.

Sun-drying fruits

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