Marjan Nikolov

The practice of fostering citizen participation in public finance-related decision-making at local government level in North Macedonia and Slovakia has backslid during COVID-19. Since COVID-19 prompted a worldwide lockdown, governments were forced to introduce emergencies and/or develop “new” participation methods. The paper aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on citizens’ participation in financial decision-making using participatory budgeting among the local self-governments in North Macedonia and Slovakia and identify possible COVID-19-specific and general barriers to such participation, considering the particular context of the two countries.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, participatory budgeting, local self-government

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged governments of all levels, all around the world, requiring an immediate response. The Governments of Albania and North Macedonia, intervened with support packages aimed at mitigating the negative e ects of the health emergency, which soon transformed into a socioeconomic crisis. In both neighbouring countries, the outbreak of COVID-19 found municipalities on the front lines of response, protecting their communities and ensuring the continuity of their activities, while facing nancial constraints. Lockdown measures, freezing of economic activities, and eased local scal policies reduced the in ow of municipal revenues, while municipalities faced a growing expenditure to alleviate the negative impact on the most vulnerable people, and to adapt to remote working while ensuring the provision of essential public services. Findings from Toto, et al. (2020) and Prorok et al. (2020) suggest that the inadequacy of nancial resources has been assessed as the main challenge that municipalities face amidst the COVID-19 crisis. The purpose of this policy document is to better understand the potential impact of COVID-19 on municipal nances and present an overview of the Albanian and North Macedonia governments' interventions in response to the crisis. Such an assessment builds on the Municipal Finances Self-Assessment (MFSA) methodology and speci cally the General Accounting Framework (GAF) as described in Farvacque-Vitkovic and Kopanyi (2019) and applied in Trajkov and Nikolov (2020) 1 and Toska and Shutina (2020) 2. Municipal nances in Albania and North Macedonia are expected to be adversely a ected by the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and in 2021, based on the scenario results presented in Trajkov and Nikolov (2020) and Toska and Shutina (2020). In light of the expected lower revenues (especially from own sources), added pressures for expenditures, and unbalanced cash-ows, it becomes imperative for municipalities to re-establish nancial control, avoid liquidity shortages, and be equipped with adequate nances.

We examine the effects of a tax behaviour nudging experiment on non-compliant property taxpayers in three Macedonian municipalities. The results indicate that on average the deterrence message was almost 6 percentage points more effective for non-compliant taxpayers when compared to the control group, while the social norm message and public good message were on average 4.4 and 3.2 percentage points more effective when compared with the control group, respectively. Furthermore, age as a variable is significant and negatively associated with tax compliance behaviour in one of the three municipalities. Finally, we recommend the experiment's approach to policymakers as effective, while being inexpensive and not requiring legislative changes.

North Macedonia can improve its economic growth by addressing the infrastructure gap by at least full capital budget utilisation. The outturn/execution of capital budget expenditures is low and in relative terms decreasing. The planned public finances for regional balanced development are also low and non-compliant with the legally set levels. A test of several hypothetical scenarios of full capital budget utilisation it is expected to positively contribute to the economic growth immediately and in the period to follow. Even if total debt increases in nominal terms, in relative terms the debtto-GDP on a longer-run reduces through generating additional economic output.

The paper provides an approach to defining organizational effectiveness as a state of relations within and among relevant constituencies of the organization. Further on a review of relevant research on evaluating orga-nizational effectiveness is provided and a methodology for evaluating effectiveness through a multiple con-stituency approach is proposed. The method is elaborated and tested on a case, of one administrative agency in the Republic of Macedonia, the Administration Agency for a period of 13 years.

For the purposes of supporting the central and local government of Macedonia in the
fi scal decentralization process and strengthening the municipal capacities in fi scal and fi nancial
management, the USAID’s Business Environment Activity and the former USAID’s Decentralization
Project, which ended in June 2007, had entered into joint project cooperation. The main task of
this cooperation had been to successfully complete the development of a Municipal Credit Rating
Model covering 4 (four) pilot municipalities (Veles, Strumica, Bitola and Struga). The strategic aim
of this cooperation was to improve the creditworthiness and fi nancial standing of municipalities
in Macedonia.
  Within this cooperation framework, a contract for expert assistance by an independent
expert was concluded through the Center for Economic Analysis (CEA), which consisted of
developing Microsoft Excel Model for Assessing the Creditworthiness of Local Self-Governments
in Macedonia, which is also part of this publication.

This document illustrates the disparities and similarities within and among the WB6 countries. We analyse the disparities and similarities in the EU’s NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 regions depending on the data
available. The idea is that, given the OBI MoUs and the OBI Agreements and the EU’s freedom of movement, some regions of the WB6 countries may be more similar than others. Thus, those NUTS regions that are converging towards a certain cluster, e.g., are showing similarities in some
demographic attributes and/or some socio-economic attributes, might be a platform for the more efficient implementation of the EU’s freedom of movement and the objectives of the OBI MoUs and OBI Agreements. Yet, this does not mean regions with larger disparities cannot achieve the same objectives. It demonstrates that the policies might be implemented more efficiently for more similar regions because they face similar challenges. Those regions that reveal more disparities will probably need greater resources to reach convergence and fewer inequalities. We believe this information is important for policymakers to bring welfare to the citizens of the WB6 countries.

This document illustrates the disparities and similarities within and among the WB6 countries. We analyse the disparities and similarities in the EU’s NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 regions depending on the
data available. The idea is that, given the OBI MoUs and the OBI Agreements and the EU’s freedom of movement, some regions of the WB6 countries may be more similar than others. Thus, those NUTS regions that are converging towards a certain cluster, e.g., are showing similarities in
some demographic attributes and/or some socio-economic attributes, might be a platform for the more efficient implementation of the EU’s freedom of movement and the objectives of the OBI MoUs and OBI Agreements. Yet, this does not mean regions with larger disparities cannot achieve the same objectives. It demonstrates that the policies might be implemented more efficiently for more similar regions because they face similar challenges. Those regions that reveal more disparities will probably need greater resources to reach convergence and fewer inequalities.
We believe this information is important for policymakers to bring welfare to the citizens of the
WB6 countries.

cognising the EU's lack of interest in enlargement towards the Western Balkans, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev, and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama decided to “take destiny into their own hands” and launch a “mini- Schengen” in October 2019. In July 2021, this idea became the “Open Balkans” regional initiative. While the initiative is no substitute for membership in the EU, it provides a path to accelerated membership and the utilisation of existing yet insufficiently used potential in these countries, which might lead to additional economic growth and development and, in turn, welfare for their citizens.

During the last few decades, extreme weather events and global and regional economic crises have been forcing us to rethink the way that governments approach territorial development. The inherent links between social, economic, and ecological systems are proving to be increasingly signicant, and exist only in a complex whole characterised by multiple feedbacks (Berkes et al. 2002). In this light, managing the relationship between the social, economic, and ecological aspects of development is of paramount importance for those interested in establishing sustainable development trajectories in the long-run. This is particularly true since the COVID-19 pandemic has added further entropy to the picture of socio-ecological interactions. During the early stages of the pandemic, decision making, regulations, and communication had converged at the national level. However, throughout the course of the pandemic, there has been growing room for improvement in policy-making. As such, there is a need to rethink development objectives and their governance according to a new long-term perspective – one that takes better account of dierent issues and needs. Key concepts such as multi-level governance, place-based  development, circular economy, and the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals can all help Western Balkan countries to achieve a better quality of life while preserving productivity, social inclusion, and the environment (Cotella and Vitale Brovarone, 2020).

All  Western  Balkan  countries  share,  despite  their  diversity  and  idiosyncrasies,  a  common  aspiration  for  a  future  within  the  European  Union,  similarities  with  respect  to  development  and integration agendas, as well as face imperfections of their planning systems and Territorial Governance  (TG)  practices.  The  current  socio-political  ambitions  and  regional  dynamics  in  the  Western  Balkan  Region,  call  for  societal  actors  to  actively  participate  in  the  discourse  on  territorial governance. Territory  as  a  policy  dimension  and  as  a  resource,  is  inherent  to  any  decision-making  that  addresses  sustainable  development,  socio-ecological  interactions,  and  resilience.  Political  dynamics also build on the territory, distressing territorial functionalities and capital, both vital to the mere existence of the society, and shared in common by communities. Such a complexity is highly present in the Western Balkan, a region where diversity and commonalities are utterly intertwined and deeply rooted in its historical course. Such a complexity, is also understood to underpin the challenges faced by the region in its efforts to integrate internally and with the European Union, hence pursuing the path set by the Berlin Process. The Western Balkan Network on Territorial Governance, a group of civil society organisations and researchers believes that a prosperous, cohesive, yet diverse Western Balkans demands for territorial governance and necessitates cooperation: cooperation between places, actors, and sectors, with sustainable territorial development as the final aim. As part of the societal actors, the Network, which comprises of civil society actors based in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,  Croatia,  Greece,  Hungary,  Italy,  Kosovo,  Luxembourg,  Montenegro,  Netherlands,  Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia, believes that cooperation should be  nourished  from  the  bottom-up,  with  non-state  actors  inducing  and  driving  governments  towards endorsing a common approach for the region. Yet, while this process is desirable, it is also complex and necessitates well-versed stakeholders to shape it. In this frame, the Network proposes the ‘Annual Review of Territorial Governance in the Western Balkans’, an annual periodical, as a platform for informed policy interaction, aiming at bringing together research and policy-influencing actors, to enable good territorial governance in the Western Balkan  Region,  in  line  with  its  sustainable  development  goals  and  European  Union  integration  ambitions.  This  periodical  welcomes  contributions  focusing  on  territorial  development  and  governance  matters  in  the  Western  Balkans,  as  well  as  context  framing  articles  with  varying  territorial perspectives, relevant to the territoriality and developments in the Western Balkans countries.  As  such,  all  articles  aim  to  bring  a  policy  outlook  relating  to  sectors,  institutional  capacities, polycentricity in place-based governance, politics of the territory, and geostrategic decisions that affect the region.