Comment
 
Are we different from the other European NGO? 

Very often we ask ourselves how much are our NGOs different from the other European NGOs, or as they are called in our country, civic associations or foundations. Many of you must think that they are ahead of us, and you may even envy on that, but is it really so? For example, the civic organizations at the Balkans, as well as those in the region of Central and Eastern Europe function with a similar organizational stability to ours. However, there are some differences between Macedonia and those countries, especially regarding the tax alleviation for this type of organizations. In this regard, Macedonia is falling behind them.

In аll countries in the region of Central and Eastern Europe there are certain privileges. Mostly, it is in the form of tax alleviations for donators that give contributions to civic organizations.
Since 1996, there is a law in Hungary that foresees that the legal entities, that is, taxpayers, direct 1% of their tax to a civic organization that best accomplishes the expected goals and interests of the taxpayers.
The same example has been recently followed by Slovakia and Lithuania. According to their newly passed laws, the taxpayers have to assign 1% of their taxes to certain NGOs.
In my opinion, NGOs from Western Europe, regarding their organizational stability, are quite different from our organizations.
Such organization has a director, certain staff, but on the main activities, for example, project preparation and implementation, the organization engages outside members, that is consultants. The relation between offices of one and the same organization in different regions cannot even be felt, they are almost independent, as there is no central office.
When it comes to legal regulation of NGO, for example in Italy, there are only 38 registered NGOs whose basic activity is to protect the environment. It is so, because if an Italian organization wants to register as NGO that will be active in the field of environment protection, it has to get a licence from the Ministry of Environment of that country. Is it good or no, I do not know. I draw this conclusion from my experience and contacts with on NGO from Rome, working in the field of environment.
So, where is Macedonia and what direction should Macedonian society take, concerning the NGO? Macedonia needs to show that it has a capacity to keep in step and that it is not doomed to fall behind, for ex. in the tax reforms. On the basis of this positive experience, besides the other necessary changes in the tax framework for civic organizations in Macedonia, it is also very important to offer solutions for a special law, or some amendments to the existing regulations that are same or adequate to the so-called "1% tax".
 
Daniel Medaroski