This master thesis ”Urban Mobility in the 21st Century” gives an insight into the challenges that come with car usage in today’s society. Even though decision makers are trying to encourage people to use other means of transport, the car is still the predominant choice of transport for many people. With this thesis I have tried to answer the question of why people generally prefer to commute and travel by car instead of using public commuting systems. The answers to this question are many. Different scientists have given their view of why people generally prefer to travel by car. One of the explanations is given by Zygmunt Bauman. He argues that we live in a society that demands consumption of both travel and merchandise as well as experiences. In this the car becomes the ultimate choice of transport, due to its apparent sense of speed, flexibility and safety. This appealing sense of speed, flexibility and safety also partly explains why people prefer to use the car, instead of public commuting systems. The society we live in today is complex with many activities spanning a wide geographical area, giving the car many advantages both in flexibility and speed. The decision makers in the European Commission, the Swedish government and the British government have tried to handle this usage of the car in different ways, sometimes by encouragement in using other means of transport, and other times by hard measures like road pricing or increased tax on petroleum. When analyzing these different methods and comparing with the dominating theories on urban mobility, I found that some methods are more successful than others and also that certain methods can have side effects that are less desirable.

The role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the process of direct tax integration in the European Union (EU) has been widely discussed in the academic literature, while another important actor, the European Commission, has attracted much less attention. The Commission’s input is commonly perceived to be limited to the right of legislative initiative. This study questions such an oversimplified interpretation and draws a more nuanced picture of EU tax harmonisation by integrating an analysis of the complex regulatory approaches adopted by the Commission for the establishment and smooth functioning of the Internal Market. It is argued that the past decade brought a notable change in the Court-dominated pattern of direct tax integration. This change is apparent first in the evolution of enforcement strategies under Articles 258 and 260 TFEU; and second, in the increased reliance upon non-binding regulatory measures. Both developments have strengthened the role of the Commission, supplying it with more possibilities for influencing national direct tax systems, despite the reluctance of Member States to agree upon legislative harmonisation. Against this background, the procedural and substantive problems associated with these instruments require closer examination. The normative scope of this research covers the key procedural problems related to the infringement procedure and non-binding regulatory measures. The empirical component explores the Commission’s enforcement and coordination practices, drawing particular attention to two case studies: the tax treatment of losses in cross-border situations and exit taxation. Following the analysis of enforcement and coordination in the field of direct taxation, the study argues the need and proposes potential solutions for (i) the developing of a more comprehensive procedural framework for the infringement procedure and non-binding regulatory acts; (ii) the strengthening of accountability mechanisms; and (iii) the enhancing of the effectiveness of their application.

This thesis is engaged in the analysis of powers and obligations of the European Commission and national courts in connection with the enforcement of the rules on competition aplying to undertakings especially articles 81 and 82 of The Treaty establishing the European Community, their development and anticipated amendments. Briefly it coniders the connection between the powers of the European Commission and national competition authorities and differences between them too, in particular the question criminal sanctins in competition law.

L’appréhension des aides d’Etat par le droit de l’UE se singularise par sa triple dimension économique, politique et juridique. Leur volume, qui demeure important, la multiplicité de leurs formes, et surtout les lourds enjeux engageant la souveraineté nationale font des aides d’Etat une matière sensible nécessitant un cadre juridique spécifique qui doit s’adapter au fur et à mesure que les politiques de l’UE deviennent de plus en plus intégrées. La Commission européenne, qui dispose en la matière d’un pouvoir discrétionnaire, détermine au cas par cas, ou dans des lignes directrices, orientations, communications, et règlement général d’exemption catégorielle, les conditions de compatibilité des aides au Traité, et au-delà impose aux Etats comme aux entreprises des obligations de faire, ou de ne pas faire.Le droit des aides d’Etat est remarquable par son ampleur (il vise tous les secteurs d’activité économique et même au-delà), sa richesse, son renouvellement. Il n’est pas seulement un cadre réglementaire destiné à clarifier les exigences de l’UE vis-à-vis des Etats membres et des entreprises, même si quantitativement, c’est son rôle majeur. Il est aussi et surtout un moteur, un outil d’intégration privilégié, dont la teneur n’est pas étrangère aux interrogations sur la nature de l’UE. Il contribue de façon notable à la construction et au renforcement des politiques de l’UE, qui une fois développées, lui impose certains impératifs. Cet enrichissement réciproque est destiné à rester pour toujours d’actualité. / The apprehension of State aids by EU Law singularises by its economical, political and legal dimension. Their volume, which remains important, the multiplicity of their forms, and especially the high issues engaging the national sovereignty brings to consider State aids as a sensitive subject requiring a specific legal framework which has to adapt itself as the EU Policies become more and more integrated. The European Commission, which has in this field a discretionary power, determines case by case, either in guidelines, orientations, communications, or general block exemption regulation, the conditions of State aids compatibility to the Treaty, and beyond imposes on States as on companies of obligations to do, or not to do.State Aids Law is remarkable by its scope (it aims at every sectors of economic activity and beyond), its wealth, its renewal. It is not only a regulatory framework intended to clarify the EU requirements towards Member States and companies, even if quantitatively, it is its major role. It is also and especially an engine, a privileged tool of integration, the content of which is not foreign to the questioning on the nature of the EU. It contributes in a considerable way to the construction and the intensification of EU policies, which once developed, imposes it certain imperatives. This mutual enrichment is intended to stay forever of current events.

La Communauté européenne est tombée dans une situation critique. Cette situation s’explique par le fait que les États membres n’harmonisent pas leur système budgétaire, dont le rôle est de satisfaire à l’intérêt commun. Toutefois, les tentatives ne manquent pas. Dès la mise en œuvre du Traité de Rome en janvier 1958, les administrateurs fiscaux de la Commission s’efforcent d’harmoniser les systèmes de taxes sur le chiffre d’affaires entre les États membres afin de créer un véritable espace de libre-échange. La taxe commune sur la valeur ajoutée est ainsi créée en avril 1967, les États membres devant l’adopter au plus tard le 1er janvier 1970. L’application de cet impôt fait alors avancer l’intégration européenne. Le parcours menant à l’élaboration des directives permettant la création de la TVA commune n’est pas simple car les points de vue de la Commission de la Communauté européenne et des États membres autours de la question sur la souveraineté fiscale différent. La Commission veut créer un Marché Commun sans frontière tandis que les États membres, notamment la France, souhaitent mettre en place la neutralité fiscale ainsi qu’un impôt qui sert l’économie, sans pourtant supprimer les frontières. La nouvelle fiscalité, sans proposer une véritable taxe européenne appartenant au budget de la Communauté, a toutefois permis de construire une Europe compétitive. / The European Community has entered a crisis. The cause of this crisis is the fact that the Member States do not harmonise their budgetary systems which would serve the common interest. However, it doesn't mean that there were no past attempts that were made. Since the implementation of the Treaty of Rome in January 1958, the European Commission's tax administrators have tried to harmonise turnover tax systems between Member States in order to create a genuine free trade zone. The common value-added tax was created in April 1967, with the Member States having to implement it by I January 1970 at the latest. The application of this tax would thus advance European integration. The path of formulating directives for the creation of a common VAT is not straightforward. The reason is that the views of the European Commission and those of the Member States are different regarding fiscal sovereignty. The European Commission wants to create a Common Market without borders, while the Member States, notably France, want to implement tax neutrality and also a tax that serves the economy, but without eliminating borders. The new common tax system would enable building a competitive Europe.

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.

Hlavným cieľom diplomovej práce je kriticky analyzovať politiku Európskej Únie a jej dopad na činnosť nadnárodnej spoločnosti E.ON. Keďže politika Európskej Únie má za cieľ zefektívniť spôsob podnikania vykonávaného v rámci Európskej Únie a okrem iného má predstavovať garanciu zodpovednosti jak spotrebiteľov, tak dodávateľov operujúcich na trhu, tak zámer práce bol definovaný na analýzu politického vplyvu rozhodnutí Európskej Únie a ich dopad na následné strategické rozhodnutia firmy. Analytická čas práce je preto zameraná na analýzu Európskej energetickej politiky s kladením dôrazu na profil spoločnosti E.ON, Európsku energetickú stratégiu, obnoviteľné zdroje, jadrovú energetiku, bezpečnosť energetickej dodávky a na Európsky systém obchodovania s emisiami.

The aim of the master thesis "The role of the European Council in the pre-legislative phase of the European legislative process" is to analyse position and influence of the European Council before proposing an official legislative proposal by the European Commission in the EU's legislative process. This pre-legislative phase of a designing of a European legislation is important, though informal. The aim of this master thesis it to find out how strong is the European Council in an agenda setting when it comes to a European legislation and to what extent the Commission is inspired or follows the European Council's conclusions when proposing a legislation. According to many authors who this thesis referring to and their research that this thesis follows, an importance and influence of the European Council has been growing a lot, recently. In their view, it has been happening primarily during serious political or economic crisis. The Commission's position as the only official proposer of a European legislation weakens in that moments while influence of the EU summits grows. The question is if it is true and how much we can really argue that during European crisis the EU's executive power is so weakened that it does not - without ex ante "permission" and ex ante "consultation" with the summits - allow...

The translation of metaphors has been analyzed and discussed for several decades, but there are not many multilingual studies that examine how metaphors are translated. The present study takes a cognitive approach to metaphor and investigates how translators at the European Commission handle metaphorical expressions and the underlying conceptual metaphors in political discourse. The source text is the English language version of the policy document A European Agenda on Migration, and the Swedish and Spanish language versions of it are included as target texts. The study identifies the conceptual metaphors that conceptualize migration and other topics that are closely related to the European migrant and refugee crisis of 2015 and the translation procedures that are used. A total of six translation procedures were found in the target texts, and the most used procedure in the Spanish target text was to retain both the conceptual metaphor and the metaphorical expression, whereas the most used procedure in the Swedish target text was to replace the metaphorical expression with a completely different one and thereby using a different conceptual metaphor. The parallel analysis of all three language versions also revealed that non-metaphorical expressions in the source text were occasionally replaced with metaphorical expressions in the target texts, which proves that adding a conceptual metaphor is one of many translation procedures. The most frequently used source domains in the source text, i.e. water, enemy and applied force, were transferred to both target texts. Some source domains were eventually lost, but a couple of new ones, such as disease and weight, were added instead.

Integration är ett omtalat fenomen över hela Europa i och med den ökande globaliseringen som bidrar till att människor av flera olika skäl rör sig över landsgränser i större utsträckning än någonsin. Ett gemensamt krafttag krävs för att invandrare ska integreras och inkluderas fullt ut i sina värdsamhällen, vilket gynnar både invandraren i fråga och samhället i stort. I föreliggande studie analyseras Europeiska kommissionens handlingsplaner för integration med avsikt att skapa en djupare förståelse för vad kommissionen ser som de främsta verktygen för att uppnå framgångsrik integration för invandrare. EU-kommissionen har publicerat två handlingsplaner, en från 2016, strax efter flyktingkrisen, och sedan ett uppföljande plan år 2020. Syftet med studien är att identifiera vilka verktyg för integration som bör prioriteras enligt EU-kommissionen, hur detta förändrats över tid samt hur det skiljer sig alternativt överensstämmer med Diaz integrationsmodell som utgör studiens teoretiska ramverk. Diaz integrationsmodell förklarar integrationsprocessen utifrån sju dimensioner som appliceras på texterna i enlighet med textanalys med inriktning på kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Studiens resultat visar att kommissionen företrädesvis prioriterar åtgärder kopplade till den ekonomiska dimensionen vilket syftar till arbetsmarknadsåtgärder och ekonomisk självständighet. Europeiska kommissionen har i den senare handlingsplanen ett betydligt större fokus på att själva utföra åtgärder inom kommunikativ integration vilket innebär språkkunskap och tillgång till information. Utifrån detta dras slutsatsen att handlingsplanerna förändras i takt med att behovsbilden ändrats några år efter flyktingkrisen då många invandrare anlände till Europa. Vidare tycks kommissionen prioritera sådana åtgärder som gynnar samhället i stort, främst kopplade till ekonomisk välgång, medan exempelvis politisk integration är lågprioriterat trots handlingsplanernas tydliga koppling till politiska aktörer. / Integration is a well-known phenomenon all over Europe as a result of the increasing globalization that contributes to people moving across boarders more than ever. A joint effort is necessary for immigrants to integrate into their host societies which benefits not only the immigrant but the society overall. This thesis analyses the European Commission’s Action Plan on Integration in order to create a profound understanding of the main tools for integration of immigrants according to the Commission. The Commission has published two action plans, one from 2016, shortly after the refugee crisis, and one from 2020. The aim of the thesis is to identify which tools for integration are prioritized, how this changes over time and how it relates to Diaz integration model which is the theory that is used in the thesis. Diaz integration model explains the integration process in seven dimensions. The dimensions are used as a tool to interpret the texts in accordance with a qualitative content analysis. The results suggest that the Commission mainly prioritizes efforts related to the economic dimension, meaning workforce measures and economic self-sufficiency. The European Commission increases their focus on communicative integration in the latter action plan and intends to implement more measures to ensure improved language skills and better access to information. This leads to the conclusion that the action plans changes as the needs and requirements for integration tools changes a few years after the refugee crisis when many immigrants arrived to Europe. The commission seems to prioritize measures that favor the entire society, mainly referring to economic welfare, while for example political integration is low priority despite the  plans association with political actors.