By October, 2004, the Working Group coordinators received 42 paper proposals covering all suggested areas. This was the highest response compared to any other working groups at a NISPAcee annual conference. The Working Group coordinators considered this response rate as an indicator that the topic was very important for the region and, at the same time, it generated enough interest among researchers.
Although the quality of a paper proposal was the major criterion in selecting the papers for the working group meeting in Moscow, thematic and country representation played their roles, too. After the first round of the selection process, all proposals were divided into three categories: accepted; accepted conditionally (need some revision); rejected. At the second round, the Working Group coordinators reviewed the revised paper proposals and accepted most of them.
Based on a mutually agreed acceptance, 14 paper proposals were selected for presentation in Moscow. These paper proposals covered academic research and professional experience from a wide range of countries, including: Albania, Armenia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.