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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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"Envirnmental Policy in the European Union - Priority for the Future?"
Straková, Jiřina ; Rovná, Lenka (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
This paper deals with the issue of environmental policy within the European Union and the status it has been gaining since the early 1990s when the 5th environmental action programme was put in practice up until the end of the year 2005. The paper tries to show how the policy has been evolving over that period, how it has been gaining more and more significance being incorporated gradually into all other European policies within the process of environmental integration. It presents the amount and quality of information one can currently get on the state of the environment that we live in. The point of the paper is to demonstrate that even though the revision of the Lisabon strategy put the environmental policy one step back, it did not actually change the succesfull process of its development that was already started in the early 1990s.
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EU and Terorism - Evolution of Common Policy 1999-2005
Hulicius, Eduard ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
This thesis is dedicated to answer a question: How does the legislative and institutional answer of the EU on a challenge of new "superterrorism" look and are they different from traditional answers on "national terrorism"? The major problem of European anti-terrorism policy is the fact, that it is a relatively new issue. Efforts to organise on basis of existing integration a common coordinating policy in the 1970's and 1980's were only minor and unimportant. The impulse created in Maastricht Treaty on European union by establishing a pillar structure of the EU was important due to development of the third Pillar dedicated to Justice and Home affairs (JHA). Intergovernmental nature of this pillar has reduced possibilities of the central institutions to influence creation of the new policies. However, a new agency - EUROPOL. European police agency was to be established thanks to the Treaty. Combat with terrorism was only one of many targets of the newly created JHA policies throughout 1990's. Action Plan on JHA from Tampere (1999) focused primarily on migration issues. The EU is focusing on a multi- forged strategy to deal with terrorism. In comparison to example of the USA is the main focus of the E U laid on internal policies. The EU position can be described as responsive - although the latest development...
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Promoting the interests in the European Parliament: case study of the Passenger Name Record directive
Wágnerová, Iveta ; Kasáková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
The aim of the thesis is to find out whose interests are promoted by the European Parliament Committee rapporteurs in a legislative process. The thesis tries to show on the case study of approving the Passenger Name Record (PNR) directive if the rapporteurs of the directive who influence the most the negotiations are influenced by their national party, the national government, the EP political group or by their own ideological interests. It was supposed that a very political topic as the directive PNR undoubtedly is, would be influenced the most by the national governments which alongside France tried to react on the terrorist attack in Paris in 2015 by adopting the directive and improving the security situation in the Europe. Through the interviews with the representatives of the EP political groups and content analysis of the relevant documents, the thesis concludes that in the concrete case of PNR directive, the interests of the governments are not the most significant but the ideological interests of the rapporteurs are. They are either in line with the interest of the EU citizens' better security situation or better protection of their personal data. The rapporteurs voted according to ability to push their interests to the directive proposal.
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Influence of the European Commission on the Adoption of the Public Service Law in the Czech Republic
Havelka, Vít ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
The master's thesis focuses on the role of the European Commission in the adoption of the Public Service Law (zákon č. 234/2014 Sb., o státní službě) in the Czech Republic. Its goal is to identify particular European Commission's tools of influence and their utilisation in the analysed case. The case study puts stress not only on hard methods (such as ex ante conditionality), but also on soft forms of influence (e.g. socialisation or persuasion). The Commission's tools were sorted according to Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier's typology: 1) External-Incentive-Model; 2) Social-Learning- Model and 3) Lesson-Drawing-Model. The thesis combines two methodological approaches - process tracing and discursive analysis of relevant Czech actors. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and publically accessible documents.
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Influence ot the Income from Oil Industry on the Economies of United Arab Emirates and Algeria in the years 2000 - 2015
Weiss, Tomáš ; Pikhart, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Pekárek, Štěpán (referee)
The thesis is concerned with the influence of the income from oil industry on the economies of Algeria and the United Arab Emirates in the years 2000-2015. The topic is analysed from the point of view of the resource curse theory. This theory is defined as a negative relationship between excess of a non-renewable resource and economic performance. Alongside with the negative economic growth, the experts defined other factors linked to the resource curse. The method used in the thesis is an analysis of these indicators on the example of Algeria and the UAE, and subsequently the dangers of resource curse are identified. The thesis evaluates, based on the comparison of the performance of selected factors, the economical and institutional development of the chosen countries. In the conclusion the diversification efforts of the UAE in the economic field and relatively safe economic development of Algeria are commented. More or less positive tendencies may be observed also in the development of most of the institutional indicators of both countries.
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