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Serbia's accession to the EU – economic aspects of preparing for membership
Spasojević, Dunja
For the past 11 years, Serbia has been an official candidate country for membership in the European Union. As such, it is obligated to meet the Copenhagen criteria, in order to obtain the membership status. A crucial aspect of this criteria is competitiveness of the potential members, which includes their ability to compete within the EU‘s internal market. Hence, this thesis focuses on determining the competitiveness drivers of the member states and evaluating Serbia’s national competitiveness. The empirical part represents a comparative analysis of indicators relevant to this topic between Serbia and Croatia, the EU member state that is historically and geographically closest to Serbia. The research involves modeling and analyzing time series data covering the period from approximately the year 2000. The results indicate that Serbia lags behind Croatia primarily in macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP, unemployment rate, and inflation. In terms of investments in research and development (R&D) and enrollment in tertiary education, the two countries have no significant differences. However, Serbia has a long way to go in order to reach the EU average in all indicators analyzed.
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EU Conditionality and the Russian-speaking Minority in the Baltic States: Problems of Integration During and Beyond EU Accession
Gaziev, Farkhod ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (advisor) ; Váška, Jan (referee)
Since its inclusion in the Copenhagen criteria, the protection of minority rights has been an important political condition set by the European Union (EU) for candidate states. This thesis examines the effectiveness of EU conditionality on the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to change their ethnic policies and its affect on the Russian-speaking minority of the states. The main argument of this thesis is that the European accession process has promoted minority rights in the three Baltic states, following which the Russian-speaking minority in the Baltic States have been partially integrated. However, the domestic opposition and the potential threat from Russia hindered EU's efforts to influence outcomes of the domestic policies.
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Why is Israel not in the EU?
Houdek, Kryštof ; Bečka, Jan (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
This bachelor thesis considers Israel's potential membership in the EU. The hypothesis is that the EU and Israel share a common interest in regards to Israeli membership. Yet, national states within the EU would block Israeli requests because of ideological bias. The first part of the thesis describes the attitudes of Israeli politicians and of the public in regard to entry to the EU. Then, I will illustrate the wide economic, security and research cooperation between the EU and Israel. The second part illustrates the attitudes of european politicians of all stripes. Lastly, I will describe the strategic interest of the EU on Israeli membership. The research question asks, simply, why Israel is not in the EU. The answer is divided into two parts. One part analyses legal documentation from the EU in order to prove that, on a legislative level, Israeli membership does not face any significant obstacles. The second part attempts to prove that in terms of national states there is an opposition strong enough to stop such an initiative. The work combines two theoretical approaches: liberalism and neorealism. Liberalism argues in favour of mutual cooperation. Neorealism explains why such cooperation has no chance of fulfilment. The research includes content and discourse analysis of statements made by...
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The Politics of European Union Enlargement: Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia
Hach, Tomáš ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Karlas, Jan (referee)
Tomáš Hach - The Politics of EU Enlargement: Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia Abstract The diploma thesis deals with the topic of the politics of EU enlargement and perspectives of future developments in this area. Its main objectives are to define the politics in theory, to introduce it in the context of the Western Balkans and apply it to the three selected cases - Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. The work considers the historical development since 1990's as an important factor with a huge influence on current negotiation, and therefore the thesis pays high attention to that. Besides the historical excursion, the thesis deals with topics of political development, introduces the status of current negotiations and the relationship between the European Union and certain countries since the establishment of the first official contact. Through the comparative case study, despite differing positions of states within the framework of negotiations, it is highlighted that all countries share common problems. The method of compliance and non-compliance generates common problems as well as underlines the particular specifics. An important contribution is also the comparison of individual countries based on fulfilment of the Copenhagen criteria in the context of current affairs.
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The Benes Decrees and the Accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union
Šimunská, Petra ; Spirit, Michal (advisor) ; Kříž, Radim (referee)
The thesis examines the Benes decrees and the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union. The paper focuses on legal issues concerning compatibility of the legal order of the Czech Republic, having the Benes decrees as its integral part, with so called acquis communautaire -- legal order of the European Union. The thesis aims to answer the question of what legal issues challenged the readiness of the Czech republic to join the European Union. The first chapter explaines the term Benes decrees and defines which decrees are relevant to the accession to the EU. The following chapter focuses on the role of the Benes decrees in the Czech legal order as well as on the conditions for EU membership. The last chapter compares four legal opinions concerning the Benes decrees and their compatibility with acquis communautaire. In conclusion, the thesis provides an answer to the research question as set down in the introduction.
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Turkey's accession to the European Union
Koláčková, Ivana ; Němcová, Ingeborg (advisor) ; Bartušková, Hana (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to evaluate Turkey's readiness to join the European Union on the basis of the Copenhagen political and economic criteria. For this purpose, the thesis is divided into two main parts - political and cultural aspects and economic criteria. The influence of neuralgic points i.e. Kurdish minority and Cyprus issue will be also considered.
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Croatia and its accession to the European Union
Sobotková, Magda ; Abrhám, Josef (advisor) ; Ilinitchi, Cristina (referee)
The goal of this bachelor's thesis is to evaluate political and economic conditions of Croatia in terms of its accession to the European Union. The thesis is divided in two parts: The political aspects of Croatian membership and Economic situation of Croatia. The thesis focuses on the Copenhagen criteria and the Maastricht criteria. Moreover, the macroeconomic data of Croatia are compared to data of chosen EU member and candidate countries.
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Current status of the European Union Integration Process
Buchalcevová, Zuzana ; Jiránková, Martina (advisor) ; Pluskalová, Eva (referee)
This thesis aims to analyse current status of the European Union Integration Process. Firstly, the historical development of the European Union Integration Process is introduced. Its knowledge contributes to a better understanding of present incentives leading to the European Integration. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on a framework of the Accession Process applied by the Union in relation to countries willing to join this community. Within the Accession Process the mandatory criteria are also defined. That means for an applicant country a necessity to meet these conditions before entering the EU. Moreover, the financial assistance intended for the candidate countries and potential candidates is described. The main contribution of this thesis consists in analysing the Accession Process of five candidate countries, namely of Croatia, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey and Montenegro. This section describes each candidate in terms of the Accession Process development, perspective of joining the EU and financial assistance provided by the Union. Lastly, the economic activity of candidate countries is evaluated and the possible impacts on the European Union in case of their integration are presented.
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Comparison of the political and economic indicators of selected Balkan countries in context of efforts to join EU
Paule, Marek ; Ševčíková, Michaela (advisor) ; Štěpánek, Pavel (referee)
The aim of the work is to comparate readiness of selected Balkan states for membership in European Union. I will target the former Republic of Macedonia, which has already been granted candidate status in 2005 and the Serbia and the Montenegro, which have the status of potentional candidates. The first section will focus on historical context, which effect the current political and economic situation. In the second part, I will make comparison of selected Balkan states in implementation of economic kriteria (particuraly the GDP, GDP growth rate, GDP per capita, unemployment, functioning market economy) and political criteria (human rights, democratic government, rule of law), which are part Copenhagen criteria for EU accession. Finally, I appraise the results of the comparison of the indicators listed above and recommend the time when these countries could be accepted.
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