Each presidency presents its program of priorities before the beginning. In connection with the formulation of the priorities we can follow three different lines influencing the whole process: affairs within EU, affairs out of EU and last but not least the national priorities of individual member states. The target of this thesis is to present a general overview of EU presidencies in the period 2000-2008 and to demonstrate, that formulated priorities do not appear in the agendas of presidencies randomly, but reflect certain continuity in development of the integration process.

The paper gives a picture of Turkey`s readiness for the membership in the EU. The Copenhagen criteria serve as a base for illustration of the status quo of Turkey`s preparation process. As Turkey`s negotiation process has already last for several decades, the first part of the thesis briefly describes the development of relations between EU and Turkey. The second part concentrates on the Copenhagen criteria and explains its origins as well as its content. Finally, the last part of thesis examinates to what extent Turkey fulfills the given areas of political and economic Copenhagen criteria. The focus was given on the most problematic areas as the main aim was to explain the origins of these problems and consequent obstacles Turkey has to tackle.

EU-Ukraine trade relations are important for both parties: for the EU it is a new market with huge land and labor potential, for Ukraine it is a short-term perspective to modernize it's economy. For now the trade and investment relations are not developed as they can be, in this work we analyze the current trade and investment flows between EU and Ukraine, determine the key partners and industries. In order to bring the relations to the new level, we analyze the possible impact of Free Trade Agreement on the both sides in general and more specifically regarding key industries. The result is the recommendation to continue EU-Ukraine integration, especially in terms of economical cooperation.

The thesis deals with the participation of ministers in the Council of the European Union. The first goal is to explore the participation as such, i.e. how often the ministers attend the Council meetings and what differences there are among the member states and the Council configurations. Secondly, the thesis seeks to reveal factors at the institutional (European), national and governmental level which have an impact on the participation. From the theoretical point of view, the thesis is framed by the rational choice approach. In terms of methodology, a quantitative analysis based on extensive dataset for the period 2009 - 2015 and logistic regression have been employed. The thesis concludes that the ministers attend the Council meetings quite often - the average for the period was 64%. Regarding the individual factors, it is argued that the ministers representing the presidency country attend the sessions more often. Similarly, the participation is higher if there are many points on the agenda or if the minister represents a pro-European government. On the contrary, the probability of the participation is lower if the ministers face upcoming legislative elections at home. The analysis also shows that the public attitude towards the EU is irrelevant in this case. The results are, finally,...

The European Union (EU) and South Korea signed the EU- South Korea free trade agreement (FTA) in 2011 and since then they started to gradually remove barriers to their mutual trade. This thesis is analyzing the effects of this agreement on their bilateral trade flow in 10 commodity sections from 2005 until 2018. For this analysis we are using gravity model that is estimated by OLS and PPML method for comparison. This analysis showed that the EUSouth Korea FTA influences their mutual trade in all 10 sections differently due to different levels of protectionism at the beginning. The FTA had a positive influence on their mutual trade in 9 commodity sections out of 10. In the Section 9 we found a negative effect of the FTA. Contrary to our beliefs we also found out that the highest increase in their mutual trade was not in automobile and electronic industry but in the chemical industry. JEL Classification C23, F14, F33, C16 Keywords Free Trade agreement, South Korea, European Union, gravity model Title Analysis of the EU - South Korea FTA and its effects on their mutual trade using the gravity model Author's e-mail katarina.vinsova@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail michal.paulus@fsv.cuni.cz

The aim of this thesis is to provide an in-depth analysis on the projected nature of China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative through Chinese engagement in Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Serbia. The current geopolitical situation provides a unique opportunity for the use of the Heartland Theory, first presented by Halford John Mackinder in 1904, which outlines and justifies state expansion across Eurasia. The main objectives of this thesis are to discuss possible outcomes for Serbia following increased Chinese investment and to provide a recommendation for a European response. Being an adjacent nation of the Heartland, a potential future member of the European Union, and currently balanced between Europe's and China's pull, Serbia has became a unique and important state to consider when assessing China's intentions in Europe. China's continued economic and political rise in recent years has allowed them to become influential in nations previously untethered to China, and has ominously begun to follow the footsteps that Mackinder had predicted a century prior. Although the theory suggests a nation's intent to rule the world, which one could argue China is pursuing, the aim of this thesis is in fact to uncover and illustrate the effects that China's potential advance to world...

No / A major original research project, commissioned by France (Ministry of Defence), to contribute to an EU (and also an international), policy process to prevent and combat illegal SALW transfers during transit. Greene was co-director and a core researcher for this project, playing a leading role in its design, field work, and analysis. Involved substantial interviews and engagement with EU and Eastern European governments, customs, air transport control and other authorities; presented at a cross-governmental workshop for the French Government and for European Commission, and extensively used in the subsequent policy process.

This dissertation examines how new European Union (EU) member states manage and implement European Cohesion Policy (CP). It assess the administrative and political factors that might explain the variation in the financial absorption of Structural Funds (SF), with a specific focus on two homogeneous cases from Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). Whilst there is a dense literature on the potential socio-economic impact of CP in the EU, less attention has been paid to the factors affecting CP and SF governance at the national domestic level. Questions of financial absorption, delivery effectiveness and quality of the spending remain open and are puzzling for both academics and practitioners. Subsequently, one of the main aims of this thesis has been to provide an in-depth investigation of, on the one hand, the structural administrative capacity employed by states to manage this policy and, on the on the other hand, the political factors and dynamics that influence its delivery of SF in new member states. The study carries out an archaeology of the capacity of the specialised institutions involved in the different stages of the absorption process with the general aim of explaining some of the determinants of absorption performance, particularly in the countries assessed. It proposes an absorption capacity model in order to assess these claims and the original empirical evidence collected. The thesis fills in several empirical and theoretical lacunae in knowledge. Empirically, the study draws on multiple comparative case studies from Bulgaria and Romania, two problematic yet diverging cases in terms of absorption performance, during the 2007-2013 implementation period. These countries first experience in managing and implementing SF provides empirically rich insights. Theoretically, this thesis offers a more nuanced account of the governance of CP and SF in CEECs. It builds and refines the concept of administrative capacity as well as several political factors (stability, support and clientelism) in order to examine the complexity and problematic issues surrounding SF absorption. Insights on CP governance, administrative capacity-building and the impact of politicisation at the national and local level are outlined and discussed. The main argument put forward in this thesis is that the variation in absorption performance is generated by the interplay between administrative and political conditions. In other words, the way in which administrative and political factors have interacted has shaped the ability of the two countries to govern EU Cohesion Policy and influenced their performance in absorbing EU funding. This argument is developed in line with several key findings. First, administrative capacity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for countries to deliver effectively CP. Second, political conditions can facilitate or hinder the development of national administrative capacities and have often influenced the different stages of the absorption policy process. The thesis highlights the need to critically reflect on the overall dynamics between structural administrative arrangements and domestic political conditions, in order to advance our understanding of how EU policies are governed and implemented at the national level. Finally, the thesis formulates several recommendations, for the different stakeholders involved, on how to facilitate the delivery of SF in order to improve cohesion and development in Europe.

The thesis analyses the activities which are realized within the preparation and organization of the EU Council Presidency, namely both at the general level and also in the concrete case of the Czech presidency, with the priority focus on logistic and promotional aspects. The subject matter of the thesis is also an evaluation of the presidency, which presents the important part of its organizational support. The principal aim of the thesis is to stress the cardinal importance of the preparation and organization for the successful execution of the presidency.

The diploma thesis deals with the new form of the upcoming programming period of the EU cohesion policy which will cover the time interval of 2014-2020. The first part of the thesis focuses on the concept of regional policy as a general theoretical background then it shifts to a description of the EU Common regional policy and its functioning. The next part deals with the evaluation of the economic impacts of the realization of this policy on the EU member states. Consequently, the last two parts clarify the new form of the EU cohesion policy 2014-2020 programming period, firstly from the EU point of view, secondly also from the perspective of the Czech Republic as one of the member states. In the Conclusion the thesis evaluates all possible impacts of the proposed legislative changes for the next programming period.