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The weakening of the EU gravitational pull leaves a power vacuum in Southeast Europe that is readily filled in by authoritarian powers such as Russia. The Kremlin is taking advantage of the democratic backsliding and the widespread state capture among dysfunctional institutions to enhance its economic and political influence in the region. While Russian economic power in Southeast Europe has visibly declined since the imposition of EU and NATO sanctions on the Kremlin in 2014, its overall ability to influence domestic politics has remained potent and has even gained effectiveness. Russia has preserved its sway over strategic decision-making in the region most notably in the energy sector where it has locked governments in costly infrastructure projects. By exploiting governance deficits, the Russian economic footprint has expanded to include some of the biggest companies in the region in oil refining, wholesale fuel and natural gas distribution, telecommunications and retail. Their strategic importance for the national economies in Southeast Europe has provided Russia with an outsized political leverage. To amplify its influence, Russia has aptly employed a range of sharp power instruments such as media propaganda, leveraging cultural and religious ties and sponsoring of civil society activities. This report looks into the Kremlin playbook instruments in eight Southeast European countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

International economic relations. --- Russia (Federation) --- Foreign economic relations

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The report explores the major deficiencies in the strategic, institutional, and legal framework of the Bulgarian energy sector. The analysis of the management of state-owned energy companies and large energy infrastructure projects reveals the disregard for even the most fundamental principles of accountability and control in their planning and implementation. This has affected negatively the Bulgarian taxpayers and consumers, has jeopardized the financial stability of the state-owned energy companies, and, ultimately, has reduced the energy security of the country. The report recommends that the implementation of the large energy infrastructure projects be reconsidered and be based on a sound cost-benefit analysis with regard to Bulgaria's energy security.

Energy policy.

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Настоящият доклад разглежда политиките за енергийна устойчивост в България и ЕС, основните постижения и предизвикателства в прилагането им и анализира ключови въпроси за устойчивото развитие на България. Докладът съдържа обобщение на необходимите политики за преход към устойчиво развитие в България и предлага препоръки за подобряване на управлението на българския зелен енергиен сектор. Постигането на сигурност, устойчивост и конкурентоспособност на енергийния сектор е сериозно предизвикателство за съюз от 27 държави, особено като се има предвид, че гарантирането на сигурността на предлагането на енергия традиционно е въпрос от национален характер. В стремежа си да реализират целите в областта на климатичните промени и енергетиката през последното десетилетие европейските правителства прибягват до различни бързи решения като използване на ядрена енергия или заместване на въглищата с газ, като по този начин натоварват бъдещите поколения със задачата да се справят с ядрените отпадъци и нарастващата енергийна зависимост от Русия. Две големи събития - газовата криза от януари 2009 г. и атомната катастрофа през март 2011 г. - промениха нагласите и възродиха дебата за начините за постигане на енергийна сигурност и стабилност на предлагането в Европа.

Clean energy.

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As part of the support team of the European Platform tackling undeclared work, CSD is developing a series of papers, analyses and toolkits, aimed at sharing good practices and experiences among the Member States. Since 2016, the European Platform tackling undeclared work provides an EU-level forum that allows different actors, including social partners and enforcement authorities, such as labour inspectorates, tax and social security authorities, to engage in closer cross-border cooperation and joint activities. The Platform's 2-year work programme for 2019-2020 includes activities enabling Platform members to deal with undeclared work through a holistic approach. The new work programme is building on work to tackle bogus self-employment and fraudulent letterbox companies. Four sectors that are heavily affected by undeclared work have been identified for specific action: agriculture; aviation; tourism; and the hotel, restaurant and catering sector.

Informal sector (Economics)

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The current report examines the key drivers of the hidden economy and its impact on the overall economy in SEE, and in particular the employment, social and fiscal sectors. The authors focus on the links between hidden economy and corruption, especially the administrative corruption, related to VAT drain, tax payment evasion, social security payment evasion, and "speeding up" business related services. They propose new approaches for measuring and analysing the phenomena, as well as preventive and counter-measures. The hidden economy in SEE remains wide-spread, perpetuates informality, which is linked to corruption, and denotes a substantial gap between formal and informal institutions. This gap is due both to underdeveloped formal market institutions, and also to the lack of coherent enforcement of rules, often related to corruption. Those engaged in the hidden economy are more likely to face corruption pressure than the rest of the population throughout the region. The immense diversity of the scale of the phenomenon (19 % in Croatia and 81 % in Kosovo), its prevailing patterns (no written contracts in Turkey, non-payment of health care contributions in Kosovo, envelope wages in Macedonia and Bulgaria, non-formalised business in Albania) and statistical estimation of the hidden economy in GDP across Southeast European countries leads to the conclusion that any successful counter-measures would require tailor-made policies and sequencing of reforms.

Corruption. --- Corporations --- Corrupt practices.