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EU Energy Policy - Theory and Practice
Kopp, Vojtěch ; Urban, Luděk (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
Diploma thesis " EU Energy Policy - Theory and Practice" deals with the major issues facing the European energy policy: the liberalisation of energy markets, security of supply and combating the climate change. After a short description of the history of this policy comes the explanation why the energy issues have become so important for the EU in recent years (oil thirst of the emerging markets, rise of Putin's Russia, climate change). The next chapter focuses on EU's response to these challenges, focusing on Barroso's Commision agenda. Apart from this, there is an analysis of major stakeholders' reactions concerning the recent legislation (Energy packages). However, the main part of the thesis tries to point at the discrepancies between the "official" policy as pronounced at the EU summits and the actual state of things. Major lagging behind can be found in areas such as the extent to which the external energy policy is successful (relations with Russia), the questionable impacts of subsidising biofuels or the slow implementation of energy market directives.
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EU energy policy - nuclear energy, yes or not?
Chalupská, Barbora ; Perottino, Michel (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
The theme of this thesis is the EU energy policy with emphasis on nuclear energy. The goal is primarily to introduce an energy policy, its priorities and the current situation, because this issue is important for the European Union status and high priority for the future. There are also introduced different sources of energy - fossil fuels, renewable sources and nuclear energy, which is described in detail. Evaluation of safety of nuclear energy, its advantages and disadvantages and opinion of important positions of the European Union to this source of energy or environmental impact is a basis for finding answers to the question that follows from the title of the paper. Nuclear energy can be considered reliable and environmentally friendly source of energy. Fear of nuclear accidents is nowadays already unfounded and if there are respected all safety measures and controlled both equipment and human factors, the risk of accidents in nuclear power plant is minimal and nuclear energy can find more supporters. Nuclear energy can help the EU solve many problems in the energy field, whether it be environmental protection, energy security and reducing dependence on energy imports.
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Elimination of Obstacles to EU - NATO Cooperation? (The influence of the French reintegration to the NATO military structure on European security and the attitude of the Unighted Kingdom towards it)
Konířová, Hana ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Karásek, Tomáš (referee)
Closer relations between EU and NATO have been desired for a long time. Inspite of the fact that European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP, created in 1998) was not meant to be a rival to NATO, the reality has been different. ESDP had its opponents, especially the USA, that were convinced that ESDP would weaken NATO. Turkey has also become "an obstacle", especially after the accession of the southern part of divided Cyprus into the EU in 2004. Turkey's counterpart has been France seeing ESDP and NATO as a "zero-sum game". However, some kind of limited cooperation has been achieved. The possible impuls for a change could be the reintegration of France into the NATO military structure. The main thesis is that the French reintegration into the NATO military structure might result in a new beginning of closer EU - NATO relations. In order to confirm or falsify this thesis, the study shall focus on empirical analyses of the changed context in relations between European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation after the French reintegration into the NATO military strucutre. The element of comparison between France and the Unighted Kingdom shall therefore be used for them being the main European security actors. Their attitudes shall be examined with regards to the possible influence of the change on the two...
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European Union as an "Area of Justice" (Civil Matters)
Břicháček, Tomáš ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
RÉSUMÉ (ABSTRACT) 1. Judicial cooperation in civil matters is an important area of the European integration that reflects the necessity to provide cross-border private law relations within the EU with legal certainty and judicial protection. This cooperation solves in an efficient way problems that would otherwise result from the differences between the private law systems of the individual Member States and from the independence and territorial limitation of their judicial systems. Its solution consists in the unification and harmonization in the field of the international private law. This method enables to these difficulties to be solved without the necessity o f a deeper interference with the private law systems of the Member States. Currently the area covers an essential part of the subject of the international private law, namely all its key areas - international jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement offoreign judicial decisions, determination of applicable law and legal aid among the courts throughout the Union. A bigger uncovered space is left in the field of applicable law, but there already exist new projects. Altogether, this area seems to be an organic functional complex, which bridges the territorial limits of the nationaljudicial systems. 2. This area is a very dynamic one. The European...
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EU and the Kyoto Protocol: EU Cumate Policy in the Context of World-Wide Activities
Kroupová, Sylvie ; Rovná, Lenka (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
EU AND THE KYOTO PROTOCOL: EU climate policy in the context of world-wide activities This thesis discusses the role of the European Union in the process of international negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change, which sets the targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the ratifying countries. With these negotiations the world-wide climate policy was launched. The EU introduced itself as the world leader on the field of promoting high targets and a maximum range of domestic actions. In the international negotiation process, which was in run since 1992, EU had to urge other major emitters of greenhouse gases, above all the United States and Russia, on ratifying the Kyoto protocol. After the US had declined the Protocol, the EU put a great effort in bringing Russia to ratification of the Protocol so that it could enter into force. The EU was also the main initiator of further discussions on climate change strategy in the post-Kyoto period since 2012. As the process of the Protocol's ratification took almost six years, the EU has started its own climate policy with the aim of fulfilling its Kyoto targets. The examination of the EU climate policy domestic actions is the second and the main target of this thesis. In the conclusion I have discussed the...
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Changed Security Environment and Armaments Cooperation in the European Union
Shabu, Martin ; Pick, Otto (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
With the end of the Cold War there was a widely shared view amongst scholars in Europe as well as in the USA to the effect that the victory of western style democracies was overwhelming and lasting. However, developments in the Balkan region in the last decade of the twentieth century tragically showed the significance of such an illusion. The question of capabilities came on the scene with the NATO bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo conflict. Over ninety-five percent of the bombs fired were from planes of the Unites States.1Once again Europeans were unable to deal with conflicts on their territory. This time it was even worse. The European Union was depicted as not only a political but also a military dwarf. The launching of the European Security and Defence Policy project in 1998 was a step towards independent European forces being able to cope with low-intensity conflicts without the help of the US. But European soldiers need weapons which are designed to combat the military challenges of the 21st century. This is hard to achieve in a situation where almost all European defence budgets are steadily decreasing. It is clear that European taxpayers are simply not prepared to pay the costs of their security. At this point, defence ministers had to count with less support which required more effective use of...
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European Union - A Global Actor?
Mizerová, Iva ; Urban, Luděk (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
European Union participates recently in a great number of global affairs and its presence could be felt in many spheres of political and business life. It is thus often referred to as a global actor or global power, and its influence is widely praised. The goal of this paper is to determine, if the European Union in its current state really constitutes a global actor. This fact is examined in theoretical as well as in practical circumstances. This paper further aims to establish, whether this position is constant, or develops in time. As the European Union is neither a state, nor an international organisation, it is firstly set within the framework of the predominant international relations theories. Having taken this enlistment into consideration, it is then established, what kind of unit it actually is in the international system, and if it is hence in fact possible that such an entity could be a global actor. Subsequently, the leading actorness theories are applied to establish what kind of actorness it could perform. In the end of this part, it is assessed what kind of role the European Union actually plays in the theoretical field. Consequently, this allegation is examined in the practical terms. On the basis of facts, examples and actual events, it is thus evaluated, if the practical actions of the...
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