IME – Think Tank of the Year
Institute For Market Economics was named Тhink Тank of The Year in the first ever UK awards of this kind. The inaugural Golden Umbrella Think Tanks Awards took place on Wednesday 5th December 2007 at the National Liberal Club bringing together the Stockholm Network's 130+ member think tanks from 40 countries ranging from Iceland to Azerbaijan, in addition to European politicians, journalists, policy makers and industry representatives.
The awards of IME are:
Think Tank of the Year – for spreading of the ideas of free market and personal choice in Europe.
Presented by
Dr. Jan Čarnogursky, former Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic
Accepted by
Dimitar Chobanov, Chief Economist at IME
The Media Award – for successful work with the mass media and spreading of the ideas through different information formats.
Presented by
John Fund, Wall Street Journal
Accepted by
Dimitar Chobanov, Chief Economist at IME
We are honored to receive this recognition.
Already fourteen years we support and protect the ideas for market freedom and try to restrict the intervention of the government.
We believe that these awards are recognition for the intense and expert work in the Institute and the professionalism of our team. We want to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Krassen Stanchev, Executive Director of IME (1993-2006) who worked hard for spreading the ideas of market and personal freedom. Also, we take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the members of the Board who support our work.
We are sure that this recognition owes to the fact that in Bulgaria there are many think tanks and people who support the freedom and are ready to protect their ideas.
We believe that these awards are recognition for the independence of IME and its presence on the public scene because we strive to inform the society about our positions, beliefs and work. Our understanding that we must be opened for the media and the people is the basic of our work and we demand the same from all.
We believe that this award shows that the development of the civil society is not considered only as charity, but also as accumulation of ideas, which help everyone.
The awards are challenge for the team of IME to continue and extend its work and stand up for the competition, minimum intervention of the government and greater opportunity for personal free choice.
We are thankful to everyone who supports IME and makes offers or criticizes our work and our ideas.
A contribution to receiving the awards have also the media because of their participation in spreading of the ideas of free market and choice in the country.
Svetla Kostadinova
Executive Director, IME
December 07, 2007
The rest winners are:
The Award for the Best Think Tank in New Market Economies – Free Minds Association in Azerbaijan
The Award for the Best Contribution to Free Market Thinking – Jose Pinera, former secretary of Labour and Social Security in Chile
The Best New Think Tank Award – European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) in Brussels
The Personality of the Year Award – Prof. Atilla Yayla, Political Scientist and President of the Association for Liberal Thinking in
The Internet Award – Institute of Economic and Social Studies in Slovakia
The Award for Best Research – Istituto Bruno Leoni in Italy
The Innovation Award – Taxpayers` Alliance in London
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The Stockholm Network is a pan-European think tank and network, located in London. In addition to it's own policy research, it is an umbrella organization for market-oriented think tanks in Europe. It has over 130 member organizations.
The organization was founded in 1997 by Helen Disney in response to the growth in market-oriented think tanks across Europe, with the aim of providing a forum for sharing, exchanging and developing pan-European public policy research. Interested in ideas which stimulate economic growth and help people to help themselves, it promotes and raises awareness of policies which create the social and economic conditions for a free society. Its stated goals include:
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Reforming European welfare states and creating a more flexible labour market.
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Updating European pension systems to empower individuals.
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Ensuring more consumer-driven healthcare, through reform of European health systems and markets.
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Encouraging an informed debate on intellectual property rights as an incentive to innovate and develop new knowledge in the future, whilst ensuring wide public access to such products in the present.
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Reforming European energy markets to ensure the most beneficial balance between economic growth and environmental quality.
Currently, the Stockholm Network has three programmes: The Health & Welfare Programme, the Intellectual Property & Competition Programme and the Energy & Environment Programme. Each was developed in order to further the objective of the Network in searching for practical market-oriented solutions to the endemic problems Europeans face today.
The Institute for Market Economics (IME) is the first independent economic research institute in Bulgaria, founded in 1993. The mission of IME is to promote and protect the market approaches for overcoming of the challenges of the citizens of Bulgaria and the region. The aims of IME include giving independent estimate and analysis of the government policy and to serve like a tribune for exchanging opinions and conceptions of economists and observers about different questions.
