The topic of this diploma thesis is the Process of institutional reforms of EU in light of its enlargement. The thesis is divided into two parts -- theoretical part and practical part. Theoretical part talks about European treaties that founded or reformed five main European institutions -- Parliament, Council, Commission, Court of Justice and Court of Auditors. In separate chapter the thesis talks about Lisbon Treaty and this chapter is followed by description of the main institutions. Practical part was based on original research in which almost two hundred respondents took part and which was focused on the knowledge of respondets of the administration of EU. The results of the research were analysed in form of commented graphs and tables. Based on the research, last chapter provides recommendations that should help increase the knowledge of Czechs of the EU administration.

Passengers claims in air transport under the Regulation (EC) of the European Parliament and of the Council No. 261/2004 Abstract The subject of this diploma thesis is the claims of air passengers, especially those arising from Regulation (EC) 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, but also according to other regulations of private international law. The thesis is divided into four parts, which, with regard to the nature of the topic, combine both theoretical and practical aspects. The first part provides an introduction to the issue by setting it in the historical context of civil aviation regulations and then discusses important documents in the field of air passenger rights. In particular, it compares these documents with each other and provides the reader with a practical overview of these documents. The second part deals with the Regulation (EC) 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which is the central legal regulation of this work. First, the author describes the context and process of adoption of the Regulation and then deals with the individual parts, while supplementing the theoretical interpretation with numerous references to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Subsequently, the circumstances of the ongoing amendment of the Regulation are...

This thesis compares two theories of voter behavior in the 2019 European Parliament election (EP election). The second-order national contest theory claims that the European Parliament elections are basically seen as unimportant and are predominantly about national issues. In contrast, the competing Europe matters theory (or EU matters) claims that voters to a significant degree are motivated by European issues. Research on earlier elections has presented evidence strongly in favor of the second-order national contests theory, however, the most recent elections show more ambiguous results. With Europe having gone through a refugee crisis since the last EP election, and with Brexit taking place in the run-up to the election in 2019 making the future of the Union uncertain, there are strong reasons to challenge the second-order theory, and examine if voters did care more about European affairs in the 2019 EP election to substantially make this election about Europe. This thesis will focus on political parties and the predictions the different theories make on the electoral outcome. The study will use a quantitative research design to investigate if changes in voter support for parties in the 2019 EP election compared to the preceding national general election (national election), are the result of national or European issues. The findings suggest that the EP elections are still primarily about national issues and the expectations from the second-order national contest theory can largely explain the outcome of the 2019 EP election. For instance, in the 2019 EP election, the popularity of governing parties in the national arena seems to significantly affect their electoral performance in the EP election. Furthermore, small parties overperform, suggesting voters do not vote strategically and have little interest in the EP election. At the same time party position on European integration only had minor effect on the outcome, which is expected to be substantial if the elections are about Europe. This study shows that it is too early to dismiss the long-held notion of European Parliament elections as being second-order national contests. More research is, however, needed to examine different aspect of the EP election and the different mechanisms at play for a more complete understanding of the nature of the EP elections.

This diploma thesis comparatively analyses elections to the European Parliament held in 2004 and 2009 in the Czech Republic. It focuses on the main features of these elections with the aim of finding their main similarities and differences. For this purpose the framework of the classic "second order elections" concept is used which was introduced by Karlheinz Reif and Hermann Schmitt. The introductory part summarizes the main aspects of the "second order elections" concept. What follows is the examination of development of the electoral system for the elections to the European parliament. Crucial features of the electoral system used in the Czech Republic are explored in detail. The main part of the thesis concentrates on the analysis of elections to the European Parliament held in the Czech Republic in 2004 and 2009. These elections are put into context of domestic political situation. Additionally, party lists and election manifestos are examined, as well as the most important facets of election campaigns of relevant political parties. Necessary attention is also paid to the analysis of election results and to their implications for the political and party system. Finally, in the closing chapter both elections are compared using the "second order elections" concept.

Presented thesis is focusing on the dependence and relationship between Europarties and groups of the European Parliament and Europarties and national parties. The research is carried out on five Europarties: European People's Party (EPP), the Social Democratic Party (PES), the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the European Green Party (EGP) and the Party of the European Left (PEL) in the period 2004-2013 and it focuses on three areas: Europarties' financing, its leadership and autonomy in decision making. It presents several conclusions. Since 2004 Europarties became independent on the EP groups and more independent on the national parties in the area of financing in connection with the Regulation No. 2004/2003 regulating financing while their resources have been growing. On the other hand, all three organizational structures are still involved in the decision making as is shown on the example of nominations and subsequent elections of the so-called Spitzenkandidaten (candidates for the President of the European Commission) and the hierarchy within the European party families is similar to the hierarchy of its member parties. Presented thesis also highlights the considerable personal connections between EP groups and the top positions in the Europarties and it underlines...

This paper focuses on the role of the human rights in the European Parliament decision process. It was created as reaction to blame the European Parliament for not considering the human rights when voting for Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Colombia and Peru. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether the European parliament is the protector of human rights in the world or not. An in- depth examination of the Trade Agreement itself, level of democracy in both countries, actions taken by European Parliament and an extensive discourse analysis proves that the European parliament is the protector of human rights. Part of the paper is also devoted to the question of readiness of the Parliament to get involved and to intervene in case that the democratic situation in Colombia or Peru gets worse. Key words: European Union, Colombia, Peru, European Trade policy, Free Trade Agreement, European Parliament, Human Rights

The thesis deals with the concept of politicization of the European Commission. It stems from the assumption that the new election procedure of the President of the Commission which is connected to the nomination of so-called Spitzenkandidaten, i.e. the lead candidates of the political parties before the elections to the European Parliament, led to the strengthening of the Parliament and subsequent politicization of the Commission. The new President of the Commission thus comes from the strongest political party which ran the elections with his candidature. The thesis formulates four hypotheses while focusing on three main areas which might be influenced by politicization: public opinion awareness, strengthening of the political affiliation of the commissioners as well as of the whole College of commissioners, and change of its inner composition - the political experience should become more prominent when choosing the suitable candidates for the commissioners. The analysis shows that it is possible to trace a positive trend in public opinion awareness from the side of the European Commission. Furthermore, it indicates the political assignment of individual portfolios among commissioners. On the other hand, the strengthening of the political affiliation of the Commissions and the change of the inner...

The thesis studies the most recent debate on the issue of democratic backsliding in Hungary, and more specifically, if a rhetoric of inaction was dominant in the plenary debate of the European Parliament. Democratic backsliding is a crucial topic to research in the context of the European Parliament’s recent attempts to take a more active role in defending the European  Union’s fundamental values. The different type of rhetoric used by the European Parliament’s eight party groups makes the political clash over Hungary even more interesting. In this thesis, the type of rhetoric and empirical basis used by the party groups will be described. The study finds that the majority of party groups in the European Parliament use a rhetoric of action towards the democratic backsliding in Hungary despite prior research arguing against such a pattern. Moreover, the most common empirical basis being used, is democracy and rule-oflaw. These results are intriguing because they address an important research gap in the literature on EU institutions and action on Hungary.

This study aims to investigate the policy focus of Swedish parties in the two most recent European Parliament elections through a quantitative content analysis of the parties' election manifestos. The method for this analysis has been inspired by the well-known Comparative Manifesto Project. The information made available through the method has been analyzed within the framework of relevant theories in the field, namely Second-order Election theory and Issue Ownership theory, to examine whether this policy focus aligns with expected outcomes. Descriptive statistics show significant changes between the elections; for example, the length of the election manifestos has more than doubled on average. Theoretically, the statistical results can be said to align with expected outcomes. Each party places a significant emphasis on the issues in which they already have established credibility, which is the expected outcome according to Issue Ownership research. However, one party stands out in this regard: the Liberals. This is likely due to a combination of the fact that education issues are largely not decided within the European Parliament, while the Liberals have ambitious goals to be the most pro-EU party. This combination potentially affects the Liberals' results in the European Parliament elections negatively, given Second-order Election theories that argue the connection to the national arena is crucial for achieving good election results. The issue of the environment and climate stands out in that all parties, except the Sweden Democrats, place a significant emphasis on it, despite many parties not having high credibility in this area. This contradicts both Issue Ownership theory and Second-order Election theory. Potentially, the cross-border nature of the environment and climate issue is starting to change what we think we know about the connection between national and the European election.

"Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Docteur en droit (LL.D) et à l'Université Jean Moulin en vue de l'obtention du grade de Docteur en droit" / Les États européens n'ont, jusque dans les années 90, envisagé leur défense que dans le cadre d'alliances militaires et restaient maîtres de leur défense nationale. La mise en place d'une politique européenne de défense a toujours connu des obstacles, reflets des problèmes de souveraineté. Dans l'Union européenne, l'intégration politique, et en particulier celle de la défense, reste le domaine le plus incertain. Cette thèse de nature essentiellement empirico-descriptive aborde le thème de la défense européenne sous une approche réaliste, en plaçant les États au centre de la construction européenne et en en faisant les acteurs principaux. Depuis 1992, les États tentent de définir une politique européenne de défense mais rencontrent différentes difficultés. En effet, la politique européenne de défense souffre d'un double déficit. Le premier est un déficit institutionnel puisque la P.E.D. est loin d'être une politique commune et se limite à un mécanisme de coopération. Le second est un déficit matériel puisque l'Union européenne n'a pas la puissance militaire pour mettre en oeuvre une éventuelle décision commune. Afin d'évaluer les perspectives d'évolution d'une politique européenne de défense, nous devons étudier les différents défis que les États et les institutions communautaires doivent relever pour combler ces deux déficits. Les défis d'ordre institutionnel concernent les multiples acteurs, États et institutions, qui interviennent dans la définition de la P.E.S.D. Il s'agit de déterminer quelle instance est la mieux à même d'assurer la représentation internationale de l'Union européenne afin de donner l'impulsion politique nécessaire de la P.E.S.D. Les défis d'ordre militaire concernent les moyens que les différents acteurs souhaitent engager afin de concrétiser la politique définie. Toutes ces discussions montrent la justification d'un système européen de défense mais la question est de savoir si les États, acteurs centraux de la construction européenne, sont prêts à relever ces défis. / Up until the 1990's, the European States have solely thought of their security forces inside military alliances as they kept control of their national defense. The putting in place of a European defense policy has always met obstacles, which reflect the problems linked to the preservation of sovereignty. The political integration in Europe remains uncertain, mostly when it comes to common defense. With an empirical and descriptive manner, this thesis depicts the European defense theme in a realistic approach, by placing the States in the middle of the European construction and by giving them the main role. Since 1992, the States tried to lay down a European policy of defense, but they encountered various difficulties. Indeed, the European policy of defense suffers from a double deficit. The first is institutional since the European Defense Policy is far from being part of a common policy and is strictly a cooperation mechanism. The second is a material deficit since the European Union doesn't have a military force to implement a common decision. In order to evaluate the possible evolution of a European defense policy, we had to study the various challenges that the States and institutions must face in order to address those two deficits. The institutional challenge concerns the multiple actors, States and institutions, which intervene in the definition of E.P.S.D. This part will try to identify which institution would be best capable of ensuring the international representation of the European Union and to give the political impetus necessary to the putting into place of the E.P.S.D. The military challenge concern the means that the different actors would engage in order to concretize the policy. Ali these discussions show the justification of a European system of defense, but the question remains as to whether the States, central figures of the European construction, are ready to take up these challenges.