This essay examines the European Union’s (EU) ability to play a leading role as a global actor on the world stage in international relations. Specifically, this essay studies the EU’s role of negotiator in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.  This essay also analyzes explanations for this role. Research is based on case studies, with conclusions drawn using an inductive approach. Analyses are based on International Relations Theory, with conclusions derived from the two main approaches in IR-theory - Realism and Liberalism. It is noted that the EU wanted to play an important role in the negotiations, through leading by example and consistently working towards a common, universal treaty for all involved, which is consistent with the Liberalist approach. However, the conference ended with the American president negotiating alone with four other countries, leaving the remaining one hundred and eighty-eight countries to either accept or reject the agreement without changes. This supports the Realist approach in IR-theory.  Therefore, the essay’s overall conclusions demonstrate that both the Liberalist and Realist approaches were present during this conference.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM

Magister Legum - LLM / The EPA’s will have an impact on regional integration in Africa, especially in the SADC region. The region has been split between the SADC and ESA EPA configuration therefore impacting on regional integration objectives set out under the SADC Trade Protocol.The EPA’s will be concluded separately with six of the sub groupings under the ACP grouping. With the EU-SADC EPA negotiations has come a problem of overlapping of membership of the different regions which has created confusion and conflicts. Members of Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC) did not all enter into the EU-SADC EPA has one. The EU-SADC EPA configuration consists of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Tanzania. The rest of the SADC member states are negotiating with the EU-ESA configuration. With South Africa having been allowed into the negotiations, its role should be examined and what it can contribute to the negotiations. Another conflict that has been created is the fact that South Africa has its own bilateral agreement with the EU thus putting stain on the trade relationship between South African and the rest of the SADC countries.

The diploma thesis focuses on the connection of interest in the international music competition Eurovision Song Contest and in the European Union. The theoretical part shows the current approaches to the study of the contest, which is watched annually by almost 200 million viewers worldwide. The work also provides space for a brief history of the contest, including a detailed description of how the Czech Republic participated there, what the country has done only at the time of membership in the European Union. The competition, based on a grouping of European states, is placed here in the context of the European Union, which together share the motivation for their historical establishment. The text therefore shows the history and development of the European Communities and the establishment of the European Union and its institutions. One of them is the European Parliament, whose representatives are directly elected by the citizens of the Member States. On the example of the elections to the European Parliament in 2019, the work penetrates the possible interest of events in the European Union and watching the Eurovision Song Contest, as both events - elections and contest evenings - took place at about the same time - in mid-May 2019. With the help of quantitative and qualitative methods, data from...

Global demand for peacekeeping is growing, especially in Africa. The United Nations has traditionally been at the forefront of developing peacekeeping theory and practice, and remains the primary operational agency for peacekeeping in Africa. But increasing emphasis is being placed on the African Union to assume greater responsibility for peacekeeping on the continent. The AU is still comparatively new and is in the process of developing its peace and security architecture. Over the past decade, the international community has been supporting African peacekeeping, both to build AU capacity and to provide direct operational support. In 2005 the international community agreed a collective ¿responsibility to protect¿ vulnerable civilians threatened by gross violations of their human rights. And civilian protection is increasingly included in the mandates of peacekeeping missions. Within the context of contemporary complex, multidimensional peacekeeping (¿peace support¿), civilian protection is not an exclusive operational objective, but is rather one of a number of mandated tasks aimed at establishing more sustainable 4 security as part of a broader peacebuilding goal. The AU has embraced the responsibility to protect principle, adopting a constitutional commitment to protect the rights of vulnerable civilians, including through peacekeeping interventions if necessary. But how capable is the AU in practice to deliver effective peacekeeping to protect civilians? And how appropriate is international support to help realise this ambition?

This thesis is a study on the liberalization of trade in tourism services that has taken place between the European Union and Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) under the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) -European Union (EU) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). It focuses on Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. They are all members of the OECS, the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and CARIFORUM and they are EPA signatories. Using Panel Auto Regressive Distributed Lag modelling, the study is the first to empirically test the effect of liberalizing trade in tourism services (proxied by the EPA) on inflows of tourism related foreign direct investment and European tourism demand regarding the aforementioned countries. It focuses on the period 1997 – 2013. The results indicate that Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (GDPPC) is a statistically significant determinant of tourism related foreign direct investment. This supports the established hypothesis that market size measured by GDP per capita is a key determinant of FDI. Inflation rate (IR) and trade openness (OPEN) are also significant determinants of tourism related foreign direct investment whilst the EPA is not. Regarding European tourism demand income, prices, prices in a substitute destination and room supply are statistically significant determinants in the long run. Barbados is viewed as a complementary destination to the OECS EPA signatories. However, in the short run the EPA is not a statistically significant determinant of European tourism demand which it negatively affects.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis analyzes the "updated Petersberg tasks" included in the draft treaty establishing a Constitution for the European Union. The original Petersberg tasks called for forces capable of humanitarian and rescue missions, peacekeeping operations and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking. The updated tasks add conflict prevention, joint disarmament, military advice and assistance, post-conflict stabilization, and support to third countries in combating terrorism. The thesis focuses on the requirements of these tasks and the capabilities of the European Union's civilian agencies and military forces to execute them. It explores the meaning of the new missions, their specific capability requirements, and the prospects for the European Union to meet these requirements. It concludes that the European Union is currently capable of undertaking the missions that require mostly civilian tools or medium-level military forces for their conduct. The European Union does not at present have the relevant capabilities for the missions that demand more advanced military forces. / Major, Hellenic Army

Diplomatic privileges and immunities of bodies and workers of the EU institutions Le sujet de ce travail est de présenter des privilèges et immunités concernant l'Union européenne en tant qu'organisation internationale, ses fonctionnaires, agents et autres personnes susceptibles d'agir dans son intérêt. À la différence des immunités des États, accordées à ces derniers au nom de leur égalité souveraine, les immunités des organisation internationales se justifient exclusivement par leur caractère fonctionnel. Elles visent en effet à assurer à l'organisation une certaine autonomie et une indépendance indispensables à l'efficacité de son action. L'Union alors jouit des privilèges et immunités nécessaires à l'accomplissement de sa mission. Le document servant de base juridique, dans lequel les privilèges et immunités de l'UE sont définie , est le Protocole du 8 avril 1965 sur les privilèges et immunités des Communautés européennes. Ce dernier a été révisé au 1er décembre 2009 par le traité de Lisbonne. L'UE remlace ainsi, par ce traité, la Communauté européenne, ainsi duquele Protocole sur les privilèges et immunités des Communautés européennes, qui devient le Protocole sur les privilèges et immunités de l'Union européenne. Ce Protocole concerne l'UE, ses organes, les représentants des États...

Diploma Thesis Abstract This diploma thesis is focused on value added tax (VAT) from the perspective of Czech and European law. VAT was introduced in the 50s of last century and became the general indirect tax in the European Union (EU). This thesis is introductory analysis of VAT law that is regulated in the Czech Republic by Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on Value Added Tax, as amended and in the EU by the Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the Common system of Value Added Tax and basic comparison with regulation in the Slovak Republic by Act No. 222/2004 Coll. of Acts, on Value Added Tax, as amended. At the end it results in possible trend towards internal market and the need for effective action to combat the tax fraud and tax evasion in the future. The first chapter describes characteristics of VAT in the frame of tax law in the Czech Republic's law system. The second chapter presents short history of VAT as the general indirect tax in the Czech Republic since 1993 and analyses the Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on Value Added Tax and its institutes and provisions with relation to judgements made by courts. It continues with impact on tax maintainance by institutions as the General Financial Directorate and on criminal law. The main chapter goes through one of the EU rules that has huge impact on...