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The Establishment and Development of Asylum Policies in East Central Europe
Hoffstädt, Jord Malte ; Vykoukal, Jiří (advisor) ; Najšlová, Lucia (referee)
In the light of the current refugee crisis in the European Union, and the remarkably critical stance the East Central European states are taking in Brussels, this research contributes to a broader understanding of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland's policies towards refugees. By scrutinizing the process of developing refugee policies during the 1990s and 2000s, the research will demonstrate that the countries united in the V4 platform in their first years of transition generously contributed to international refugee protection. Steep increase of asylum applicants and negotiation talks with the EU in the late 1990s brought various changes to the refugee policies in the region, marked by more closely defining and the enhancing of asylum seekers' and recognized refugees' rights, but also by lower refugee recognition rates. Accession to the European Union ultimately resulted in more complete and comprehensive asylum policies in line with the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). However, the V4 states maintained rather restrictive interpretations of the European policy, explained by the pressure the CEAS places on the states at the EU's external border and lower economic capacity to accommodate large numbers of refugees. Recent developments are mostly the result of political exploitation...
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The Political Debate on Immigration in the UK between 2010-2015
Jíra, Alexandr ; Váška, Jan (advisor) ; Najšlová, Lucia (referee)
This thesis focuses on the political debate surrounding immigration, especially in the two prominent political parties in Great Britain - the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. Its main timeframe is between 2010 and 2015, however to fully contextualise the issue some earlier data is used. This text analyses the pre-election debate of the main political parties in the United Kingdom. It looks at immigration as a topic in their manifestos and during pre-election talks. The thesis aims to map the change in approach of the main political parties during the time when they switched positions as government and opposition.
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The influence of Cyprus' accession to the European Union on a possible reunification of the island
Chábová, Tereza ; Váška, Jan (advisor) ; Najšlová, Lucia (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines the Cyprus' accession to the European Union and focuses on how this accession influenced a possible solution of the Cyprus question. The objective is to find an answer to the question how the accession influenced a possible reunification of the island, and what the significance of the European Union in the prospects on solving the Cyprus issue was. The thesis focuses on the development of the reunification process before the accession, on the Annan plan and on the following referendum, in which Greek Cypriots voted against the reunification of Cyprus. The thesis analyzes the development after the Cyprus' integration into the EU without the northern part of the island, where the European Union has been trying for many years to end the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community. This paper also analyzes the relations between Turkey and Cyprus, which significantly affect the European politics and the Cyprus issue itself. The thesis concludes that the Cyprus' accession set back the reunification process despite the efforts made by European Union to end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots, and to prepare the northern part of Cyprus for future integration into the EU. The fact that in 2016 Cyprus has again a good chance at uniting northern and southern part of the island...
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Sharing the Refugee Burden through Relocation: Attitudes of the States of the Visegrad Group
Franta, Jakub ; Váška, Jan (advisor) ; Najšlová, Lucia (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with refugee burden-sharing by mandatory relocation mechanism in the European Union and with positions of the states of the Visegrad Group on the issue. The topic is limited to 2015 in terms of time. Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, that is to say, were prominent opponents of the refugee relocation plan as one of the proposed and finally adopted solutions to the so-called refugee crisis in the EU. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question whether the states attitudes on sharing the refugee burden undergone some evolution and whether publicly declared reasons for these attitudes correspond to the empirical situation. For this purpose is provided a reconstruction of the most significant milestones of adoption of the relocation mechanism, including the attitudes and publicly declared reasons of the Visegrad states, which are then analyzed in terms of the empirical situation. The outcome of the thesis is that states of the Visegrad Group held integrated negative attitude consistently during 2015 with only one exception - Poland agreement with the proposal submitted to the European Council on 22 September - and most of the reasons given for this negative attitude are really based on the empirical situation, though always only in certain aspects of the...
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European Union's impact on the legitimacy of the Moroccan regime
Kolek, Lukáš ; Najšlová, Lucia (advisor) ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (referee)
This work deals with the European Union's relations with Morocco with regard to its approach to democracy. Morocco's political regime has maintained for a long time its continuity in its political structure, where king possesses a dominant position. The aim of my work is to determine whether the Union after the events of the Arab spring supports a change of the system of rules on which the Moroccan regime stands. Since the nineties, EU has emphasized in its mutual relations the need of democratization. Despite several selective political reforms Moroccan regime has not qualitatively changed its nature and the dominant position was still held by the unelected Moroccan king. After the Arab Spring, the European Union declared clearly its shift away from support for undemocratic regimes and introduced a new foreign policy framework and a range of new financial instruments, which should support the democratization efforts of its partners. As evidenced in my work, although there were several political reforms, the essence of the Moroccan system remained unchanged. Yet Morocco has benefited from EU finances via these new instruments. Furthermore, through the method of framing of public speeches of the King of Morocco and the EU leaders it is apparent that EU leaders are also largely in agreement with the...
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Promoting Czech Priorities in Eastern Partnership: Three Czech Presidencies
Franěk, Robert ; Váška, Jan (advisor) ; Najšlová, Lucia (referee)
The thesis "Promoting Czech Priorities in Eastern Partnership" deals with Czech policy towards six states of Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus during three presidencies: in Visegrad Group in years 2007/2008 and 2011/2012 and in the Council of EU in 2009. These periods were chosen, because Czech Republic had the biggest opportunity to influence the project in them. Based on the analysis of presidency programms and evaluation of agenda, the thesis tries to assess, if was Czech Republic successful in promoting its foreign policy priorities in the project during the presidencies. First chapters of the thesis are dedicated to history of Czech relations with the region of Eastern Europe and to description of Eastern Partnership project. The other three chapters are case studies of particular presidencies. After all, the thesis concludes, that despite the fact, that Czech Republic successfully included its priorities in presidency programms and agenda, it was not able to promote them on the EU level because of lack of political interest and experience.
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The European Union and the unrecognized states in Georgia
Kasalová, Michaela ; Najšlová, Lucia (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
This thesis considers the role of the European Union in dealing with the problem of unrecognized states on the territory of Georgia. The aim of the thesis is to find out which tools the EU employs in solving this problem. Unrecognized states are rejected as partners of the international community, thus they lack the basis for entering international relations, the external sovereignty. Nevertheless, this doesn't prevent them from functioning internally and offering their citizens functions similar to ordinary sovereign states. Since the unrecognized states in Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, are considered parts of Georgia, this thesis will also examine how the EU employs its tools in Georgia and in the unrecognized entities and the influence of the non-recognition of these states on the engagement of the EU in them. Abkhazia and South Ossetia were created shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the following ethnopolitical conflicts in the South Caucasus. Since then, the unrecognized states have developed and built a national identity which is opposed to the former central state, Georgia. They have become seemingly independent, however, their existence is dependent on several factors, most importantly, the presence of an external patron, in this case Russia. The engagement of the...
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French policy in Libya after overthrowing Gaddafi: security consolidation or democratization?
Mistrík, Peter ; Najšlová, Lucia (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
The English school of international relations claims that the national interests of states and their behaviour in international relations are not only driven by selfish motives, but the so- called enlightened self-interest as well. The functioning of the community of the states is governed by common rules, laws, values and interests. According to the Solidarist current of the English school it is even acceptable to limit the sovereignty of the state which seriously violates international standards such as the protection of human rights. A discrepancy between the protection of the states' sovereignty and the protection of the rights of individuals was bridged by the Responsibility to protect doctrine adopted at the UN World Summit in 2005. This doctrine has served France and other states intervening in Libya as a support of the legality of their cause. However, the doctrine does not address the conditions of the intervention solely. It also delegates a responsibility to rebuild the war-torn countries to the interventionists. Therefore, it is an appropriate tool for the evaluation of the interests and motivations that have shaped the policies and activities of France in Libya. The analysis suggests that the primary motivation of France has undergone a fundamental change during the course of...
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EU - Ukraine Relations between 2004 and 2011: from the European Neighbourhood Policy to the Eastern Partnership
Havlíček, Pavel ; Zilynskyj, Bohdan (advisor) ; Najšlová, Lucia (referee)
The Bachelor's thesis deals with a problem of the EU-Ukraine relations between 2004 and 2011 in form of a case-study. More specifically, it focuses on the European Neighbourhood Policy and the project of Eastern Partnership. Analysing the partnership, the thesis tries to answer a research question what the reason for failure of the European goals in Ukraine is. To answer the question the thesis is divided into three parts and each of them describes and analyses the development of the relations between EU and Ukraine. The first chapter elaborates points from history of the partnership which are relevant for the development after 2004. The second part looks into the European Neighbourhood Policy, its origins and character together with the contribution to the relations with Ukraine. The final section aims at the Eastern Partnership initiative and it describes and analyses the policy as well. The second part of the chapter offers a comparison of both policies and it deduces limits of the European foreign policy in Ukraine. Finally, the thesis comes to conclusion that the hypothesis stating that the EU failed to achieve its goals in Ukraine due to the inconsistent approach towards Ukraine was partly right. However, during the process of writing two other limits of the "Eurocentric" European foreign...
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