PROFILING – PROtecting citizens’ rights and Fighting ILlicit profilING. The right of data protection in the context of profiling
Period of implementation: November 2012 – November 2014
One of the biggest challenges posed by the global technological evolution to the right of data protection is the processing of such data in the context of profiling. UNICRI is leading a consortium of partners in the implementation of a new project which seeks to outline the main risks to human rights involved in profiling practices.
The PROFILING project has been funded by the European Commission, DG Justice, under the Fundamental Rights and Citizens programme. It is focused on identifying and tackling the challenges posed by technology to the fundamental right to data protection. The project’s reports and reserch papers are available on the website: http://profiling-project.eu/
The project is carried out by a consortium of five partners:
- United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Institute – UNICRI
- Amapola – Projects on Security and Safety of Cities and Citizens
- Technical University of Berlin – TUB
- Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society – TILT
- Romanian Center for European Policies – CRPE
Main objectives: Identifying the risks related to the extensive use of profiling; Identifying the level of awareness of the responsible authorities of the Member States on the risks deriving from the use of profiling; Identifying the level of awareness of a selected sample/group of interviewers in testing partner countries; Identifying the countermeasures adopted in all EU Member States.
Donor: European Commission, DG Justice
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Advocacy for truly democratic European elections
Period of implementation: September 1, 2012 – April 31, 2013
The latest European Parliament elections in 2009 showed that Romania registered a very low participation rate, just 27,7% (below the European average of 43%), generating a low interest among Romanian citizens. One of the causes is the form of the election process – namely, the closed party list system – which is used in Romania for the European elections. If the voting system remains unchanged, the European Parliament elections scheduled for 2014 will follow the same scenario, making pre-election debates meaningless and discouraging the open and transparent competition within parties which should select the best representatives.
Within the project “Advocacy for truly democratic European elections”, we aim to draft a series of comparative analysis of the electoral systems used by Member States of the European Union and to make recommendations for ways in which Romania could hold the future EP elections. Moreover, we actively advocate, within an advocacy campaign, for a truly competitive framework in which European elections should take place.
Donor: Foundation for Civil Society Development (FDSC)
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Debating policies, enhancing expertise
Period of implementation: September 2012 – September 2013
The project’s aim is to develop the capacity of CRPE to analyze public policies and to effect ex-ante impact studies of public policies. In partnership with Agriculture, Finance, Education and Health ministries, CRPE will cover the following topics:
- Agriculture – the way through which the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) responds to the needs of the Romanian agriculture;
- Health – the preliminary analysis of the impact of the European directive regarding health services;
- Better regulation – the number 1 factor from the Better Regulation Strategy at the level of the central public administration – their impact on the Romanian economic activity and the regulation of the central public administration;
- Education – continuous Training policy of the teaching staff and the policy of the human resources;
- The Strategic Planning System at the governmental level – the Process of setting priorities at governmental level, guiding the sectorial priorities and the linkage with the resources.
You can view the web page dedicated to the project here.
Donor: The Sectorial Operational Program for the Development of Administrative Capacity (PODCA)
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Contributions to the development partnership between Romania and Moldova
Period of implementation: August 2012 – August 2013
The project aims at managing a public consultation process on possible bilateral projects between the two countries, which will arise from solutions and innovative ideas to strengthen Romania’s role as a major partner of the Republic of Moldova in the development and Europeanization. It covers five areas of importance in the development partnership between Romania and Moldova: joint energy projects, economic investment, free competition and market economy Justice Reform, Regional Development. These areas will be addressed in 5 thematic debates, on which will be completed 5 research reports. In support of this research will be conducted visits to Bucharest and Chisinau respectively, for in depth interviews with experts and officials from both countries.
Donors: US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Official Development Assistance Unit (Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
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Enhancing the capacity of Visegrad states, Romania and Bulgaria to act as ODA donors in the Black Sea region
Period of implementation: July 2012 – November 2013
After their accession to the European Union in 2004 the Visegrad countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia) had the obligation to become international donors for development. The same happened with Romania and Bulgaria after their integration in 2007.
This project aims at establishing a network of official development assistance (ODA) stakeholders in the six countries in order to:
- change information and best practices
- develop common proposals and projects to be implemented by the six countries, both among NGOs and state authorities.
In the first phase of the project, CRPE prepares two studies:
a)one describing the ODA institutional framework and practices in each of the Visegrad + 2 countries (Romania and Bulgaria);
b)the second assessing the donor profile for each of the six countries in key ODA recipients states in the Black Sea region.
The second phase of the project will focus on the Romanian ODA development, consisting of an advocacy campaign which will promote internally the lessons learned in the comparative studies in order to promote a better legal framework and good practices, making Romania a credible donor in Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Republic of Serbia.
Donor: Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation (German Marshall Fund)
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Research and advocacy for public policies favorable to the development of farmers’ associations in Romania
Period of implementation: July 2012 – April 2013
The project is part of the “Rural Development through Entrepreneurship and Association” programme- a joint initiative of the Romanian-American Foundation, PACT, CIVITAS, CSDF, CMSC, CRPE and CEED, which supports the development of associative entities in agriculture.
CRPE is actively involved in the future producer groups incubation process. CRPE conducts research regarding the main challenges in setting up farmers associations, with the aim of submitting policy recommendations to relevant line minsitries (Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, etc. )
Until April 2013, CRPE will prepare four reports on topics such as formalizing Romanian agriculture, taxation, access to agri-food chain for agricultural products, access to credit for agricultural associations. Reports will be documented through public consultations with stakeholders and recommendations will be presented to decision makers, in order to influence legislative changes.
Donor: Romanian-American Foundation
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The Civic Forum Romania- Ukraine
Period of implementation: May 2012
The Romanian Center for European Policies in collaboration with the Institute of World Policy from Ukraine have organized between 24th-25th of May, in Bucharest the Civic Forum Romania-Ukraine
The aim of this forum was to strengthen the bilateral relations between Romania and Ukraine by building expert networks between the two state and by establishing the premises of the civil society involvement in the bilateral relations both in Ukraine and in Romania. The works of this forum were aimed toward finding common projects between the civil society in both Romania and Ukraine.
Donors: Official Development Assistance Unit (Romanian Foreign Policy Ministry) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
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