This study examines the media coverage on the European Union (EU) plastic ban directive in Sweden and investigates the role of the Swedish media in the EU decision-making process. As society and social movements are the driving force for pushing policies forward and affecting policy change, it is important to understand the media’s role in the development. Since media is one core driving force of opinion-building in this decision-making process, this thesis, analyses the media coverage on the topic of plastic to understand the media output that is directed towards the Swedish people. Therefore, the main focus has been to gather and analyze the news coverage on the topic of plastic in two of Sweden’s largest daily newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet during the adoption of European Union’s Directive 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment. By analyzing the media coverage and the international regulations that have been formed by the United Nations and European Union through discourse analysis with the application of the concepts Framing and Europeanization, differences between the media and actors of decision-making have been discovered.

This study examines the impact of the European Union and the programmatic and policy changes in two Irish political parties, the Green Party and Sinn Féin. The Europeanization concept is the theoretical basis of the study and it is operationalized by the use of EU salience. The study is carried out by content analysis of national and European election manifestos prepared by the parties during the 2009–2020 time period. The findings showed an increased salience on the European Union in national election campaigns by both parties, and in the European Parliament elections by Sinn Féin. A process of Europeanization has taken place in both parties regarding foreign policy and issues related to external relations. The Green Party showed an increased emphasis on the European Union regarding environmental issues. This study contributes to the research on the European impact on national political parties and the increased importance of European level politics in the national systems.

The diploma thesis examines the Europeanization of regional policy of France in 2007-2013. Europeanization is analysed in the case of the Lisbon strategy approved in 2000 and then revised in 2005. Its goals divided into three thematic pillars affected the priorities of the regional policy of the European Union (EU). The thesis analyses whether the Lisbon goals influenced also the regional policy of France. Criteria of the misfit theory elaborated by Tanja A. Börzel are used to evaluate the impact of Europeanization on the French regional policy goals. First, the misfit between French and European regional policy goals in 2000-2006 is measured, then the scope of change between the two periods of the French regional policy is determined. Comparing French goals in 2000-2006 and 2007-2013, the misfit turns out to be intermediate meaning that the Lisbon goals were not a new element for the French regions. Furthermore the analysis shows that although the goals of the French regional policy were Europeanized, the scope of change was low. According to the theory, the fact could be explained as a lack of facilitating domestic actors in the French politic system. Regarding the three pillars of the Lisbon strategy, the biggest change was caused by the first one focused on renewables and energy efficiency. The...

The diploma thesis is based on the phenomenon of Europeanization and its limits in third countries (with a focus on the European neighbourhood countries). It focuses on the influence of the European Union on the adopted electoral reforms in Georgia. It is processed in the form of diachronic comparison. Thanks to it, it will be possible to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of the changes and their development. According to the analysis of the current research of the limits of Europeanization in third countries, the main factors behind these limits have been identified. These were applied to the two pre-selected electoral reforms. It was monitored whether these factors were valid for the given reform, whether they were also valid for the second selected electoral reform over time, or whether these factors contribute to the overall failure of Europeanization in Georgia.

Negotiations between the EU and the candidate countries in the Western Balkans have been dragging on for almost two decades. Until an official decision has been made on who can join the EU and when, actors at different levels have been working together within various programmes with the aim of advancing content-related harmonisation and fulfilling requirements for accession. In one of these programmes, Interreg ADRION, transnational cooperation plays an important supporting role for the possibility of Western Balkan countries to learn the practices and rules within EU projects. This thesis deals with the experiences of the project participants within this programme. Furthermore, the experiences are examined in terms of possible learning effects as well as the potential impact of Europeanization within the institutions and organisations of the programme members.

Martina Navratilova - Gender Policy of Serbia in the Context of EU Accession Negotiations Abstract This thesis deals with the gender policy of Serbia during the years 2009-2021. During this period, the European Union had a tremendous effect on the gender policies of Serbia, hence it is crucial to include the perspective of NGOs as an important partner of both Serbia and the EU. The aim of the research is to, based on the analysis and the current state of the legislative and institutional framework, assess the impact of Serbia's gender policies on the lives of Serbian women. This analysis is carried out through a thorough examination of official documents, secondary literature and by conducting three interviews with Serbian civil society members. The research has proven that despite the complex progress of Serbian gender policy, its practical results have not been significant.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the sppecific meaning of non- alignment policies of Sweden and Finland after joining the EU in 1995. In doing so, the research design is based on sociological institutionalism and its key concepts and phases that are connected to the study of Europeanization. Thereby, the study compares the domestic policies of national identity and its changes in Sweden and Finland before and after the accession to the EU. This shall answer the reserach question on how far the foreign policies of Sweden and Finland have been Europeanized and whether or not non- alignment policies are an obstacle in this process. Since social constructivism considers Europeanization as a socialization process, the paper will also investigate the main challenges for Sweden and Finalnd to face with reagrd to crisis managment, territorial defence issue and Crimea Crisis.

The thesis aims to analyze and explain the origin, development and manifestations of the process of Europeanization of two players of the Czech party system - the ODS and the KSČM. The thesis starts with a theoretical part, which summarizes the current debate in political science and Europeanization in the context of political parties. The main aim was to trace the changes that were seen among those due to the involvement of political parties in the debate over the meaning of European integration for Czech politics and the practical integration into EU institutions. The basic hypothesis, which is verified, aims to examine the correlation and negativistic relation ODS and KSČM on issues of European integration after twenty years of exposure in the Czech party system. At the same time an analysis of election results mentioned parties to the European Parliament, as well as the method of election campaigns of parties in the same institution. The analytical part of the work analyzes the ODS and KSČM in the line of the general impact of European policies, program outcomes of affected parties, as well as electoral competition in elections to the EP and Czech national assembly. Key words: Europeanization, political parties, ODS, KSČM, European Union

Master Thesis by Christian K. Vinther, Charles University, Prague (77110981) 21/05/2015 Between Liberal Policies and Conservative Values: The Role of the EU in Improving Sexual Minority Rights in Albania Abstract In 2009 the People's Advocate in Albania announced their suggestion that Albania should become the first Balkan country to legalize gay marriage, a suggestion backed by the country's Prime Minister Sali Berisha. The odd thing is that this suggestion was presented in the same country voted the "most homophobic in Europe" according to a recent study, and simultaneously the suggestion came at a time when Albania did not even have an anti-discrimination law, and, assumingly, at a time when LGBT activist groups seemed more or less nonexistent. Since 2009, Albania has progressed severely in relation to LGBT matters, and the small Balkan country has adopted noteworthy liberal sexual minority policies. Yet, as stated above, this appears as a rather paradoxical fact, since homophobia in Albania appears widespread, and since it could be questioned why a country would even need to legalize gay marriage, since the gay population are unlikely to benefit from this kind of legislation, due to the harassment and marginalization of this particular minority group. The mismatch between the conservative values in...

1 This MA thesis starts to explore a new exciting part of socialization theory, by applying the research into socialization in the management of the Czech football club SK Slavia Praha. This is done trough the evaluation of the end of the year 2007, when SK Slavia Praha for the first and last time played the group stage of UEFA Champions League. This MA thesis tries to prove that there was indeed a transfer of norms and values from UEFA to SK Slavia Praha. Next to this, this MA thesis also tries to prove that the previous socialization is not anymore apparent in the club, since the contacts with UEFA (and ECA) have since then lost because of the lack of international matches played by SK Slavia Praha. This research is done through interviews with the employees of the club, both the ones working in the club in 2007, and the ones who are employed in 2014. Keywords: SK Slavia Praha; UEFA; ECA; Socialization; Europeanization; football; management