Regional Workshop on Informal Economy and links to Corruption and Taxation 23- 25 October 2014, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Within the ITUC/ PERC – LO Norway Project “Tackling taxation, informal economy, and corruption in the Western Balkans – towards better governance and democratic processes”, the third Regional workshop for legal, economic and communication and campaign experts from the trade unions in the Western Balkan countries was held on 23-25 October 2014 in Dubrovnik.

This regional workshop devoted most of its time to the matters of taxation systems and taxation policies. Mr. Martin Hutsebaut presented a comparative analysis – final document “Taxation policies in European Union and the Western Balkans”, which he prepared based on the national reports, earlier training sessions, workshops, and discussions. The documents serves as a basis for designing the national trade union strategies, and it is also a source of maple information for the corroborated trade union proposals related to the matters of taxation systems and taxation policies. The workshop also discussed the matters of informal economy, then it analyzed and compared data from the national reports, so that the trade unions could more successfully fight the ever present and different methods of informal labor. Experts for communications and campaigns, supported by the colleagues from LO Norway and LOFF designed and agreed the communication strategy with the public, and the best possible presentation and promotion of activities, which, in this area of operation pursue the SEE trade unions. It was agreed that in the forthcoming period, all trade unions organize their meetings where they would adopt final trade union positions and proposals, which should also be harmonized between the trade union centers at the national level. All this should aim towards the best presentation of trade unions positions and proposals during their national round tables, which will be held in the forthcoming period. In the continuation of the project, more precisely in April 2015, a tripartite Regional conference is scheduled, which will present all the activities, identify the identical problems and interest of all the social partners, and also determine joint activities on the matters of taxes, informal economy, and corruption, including the corresponding alleviation of these problems, that is their gradual solving. The project continues until the end of 2015, when the trade unions will continue with their actions and campaigns at the national and regional levels.

ITUC/PERC SEE TU Office, Sarajevo