The thesis focuses on analysis of competitiveness policy of the European Union. The aim of the thesis is to define the competitiveness policy represented by long-term growth strategies: Lisbon strategy and later Europe 2020, to analyze shift in perception of the competitiveness from the beginning of this century till nowadays concerning the changes of both economic environment and the European Union. First part defines theoretical approaches to competitiveness including "European model". Second part deals with the analysis of the economic situation and identifies main challenges for the EU. Third part compares Lisbon strategy with Europe 2020. Finally, the Europe 2020 strategy is critically evaluated.

The research is aimed at investigating how the common EU social and economic strategies, namely the 'Lisbon strategy' and the 'EU 2020', have been influential as a 'EU incentive' in European social partners having drawn the matter of employment of migrant workers both at Member state level and at European level by looking into their respective changes in responses towards the matter in the course of the two strategies. The research has found that there have been changes made in the European social partners' responses regarding the problematic matter of migrant workers' employment, namely precarious working conditions and lower employment rates than native workers, at all levels. To be specific, the trade unions have begun to emphasize more proactive protection of migrants at workplace than before. However, there is little evidence that it was the result of either the Lisbon or the EU2020. It was rather much more because of the evolving European economic market circumstance that has been getting liberalized more actively as the single market goes on, featured by the problematic side of the increase of posted workers and agency workers. Especially, the research is also aimed at shedding a light on how the Lisbon and the EU2020 have been articulated in the two different economic, social and employment models, namely the Nordic model and the Western model by investigating the Swedish case and the UK case in the study of Member state level social partners.

The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the competitiveness of the EU countries. First chapter is about the competitiveness, first theoretically, then in numbers based on the the competitiveness index of WEF and IMD and Doing Business of the Worl Bank. The second chapter describes the Lisbon Stategy and analyses the Lisbon score. The last chapter compares the European and the US economy. The conclusion contains recommendations to the next development of the competitiveness of the European union.

Ο τουρισμός όπως είναι γνωστό αποτελεί βασικό βραχίονα της οικονομίας μας, δηλαδή της βαριάς βιομηχανίας της Ελλάδας. Σαφώς είμαστε προσανατολισμένοι στο να γίνει το καλύτερο προκειμένου να αναπτυχθεί και να αποδώσει για την Ελλάδα καρπούς ,πολύ δε περισσότερο σήμερα στη δυσμενή κατάσταση στην οποία βρίσκεται η χώρα μας. Είναι ευχής έργο ότι με τον τομέα του τουρισμού απασχολήθηκε η Συνθήκη της Λισσαβόνας και χάραξε κατευθυντήριες γραμμές και κανόνες καθιερώνοντας καταυτό τον τρόπο κατά μία έννοια τουριστική πολιτική στα πλαίσια της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Τούτο πρέπει να αποτελεί βασικό και απαραβίαστο κανόνα και κατευθυντήρια γραμμή των επενδύσεων που θα γίνουν είτε στην Ελλάδα είτε σε οποιοδήποτε κράτος –μέλος της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης ,έτσι ώστε να διασφαλίζεται η ανταγωνιστικότητα και να μεγιστοποιείται το συγκριτικό πλεονέκτημα της Ευρώπης και της Ελλάδας ειδικότερα. Η Ευρώπη και τα κράτη-μέλη της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης υπερτερούν σε ορισμένους τομείς κυρίως διότι εδώ υπάρχει ο τύπος του «ώριμου» αστικού κράτους , ο δυτικός τρόπος ζωής και διασκέδασης και κάλλιστα μπορεί να αποτελέσει στόχο για τον επισκέπτη ενός υπεύθυνου και ποιοτικού τουρισμού. Η διασφάλιση περιβαλλοντολογικών όρων -πράσινη ανάπτυξη- ποιότητας αποτελεί βασικό μέλημα και μέσο ανάδειξης πλεονεκτήματος σε σχέση με προορισμούς του τρίτου κόσμου. Οι υποδομές των μεταφορών (λιμάνια, αερομεταφορές, τρένα , σύγχρονο οδικό δίκτυο κτλ.) , εκτός κάποιων εξαιρέσεων π.χ. Ελλάδα, βρίσκονται σε ώριμο επίπεδο ανάπτυξης και καμιά φορά και πρωτοποριακό λ.χ. TGV Γαλλία, η υποθαλάσσια σήραγγα στη Μάχη. Πρόβλημα αποτελεί η μη δυνατότητα συμπιέσεως του κόστους και κυρίως οι νομισματικές ισοτιμίες ευρώ έναντι δολαρίου, γιεν και νομισμάτων γενικότερα τρίτων χωρών. Η εμμονή σε «σκληρό» νόμισμα δηλαδή ακριβό ευρώ, για τους Αμερικάνους ή κατοίκους τρίτων χωρών, δημιουργεί όσο υπάρχει ένα σοβαρό πρόβλημα το οποίο θα πρέπει να αντισταθμιστεί από την ποιότητα των υπηρεσιών και την αρτιότητα τους. / -

In this study, the way how the new challenges faced in the post-Fordist period affected labour work arrangements and European social policy making is analyzed. In this regard, the formation of flexible work arrangements and forms of flexibility are examined. The attempts of the European Union to produce effective strategies to connect economic developments to social progress are discussed.

This thesis treats of importance of education for the success on the labour market. It is aimed at retraining financed from resources of the active employment policy and at retraining courses and educational activities within the frame of projects of the European Social Fund in the region Vysocina. In the first part I define the conception of the human capital and I mention economists who dealt with the theory of the human capital. The second chapter is applied to the employment policy in the European Union and the Czech Republic. In more detail I describe the Amsterodam Treaty, the European Employment Strategy, the Lisbon Strategy and the results assessment of these strategies. The employment law regulates the employment policy in the Czech Republic. The National System of Qualifications is placed in this part too. In the third chapter I analyse the educational structure of population of the Czech Republic and the region Vysocina. In the following chapter I attend to resources of the financing of retraining which are the state budget and the European Social Fund. In the last chapter I am engaged in retraining in the region Vysocina and I analyse it in various terms.

The aim of this PhD thesis was to illustrate the modernisation of Swedish and British welfare policies during the time of the EU’s Lisbon Agenda which aimed at reconciling social protection with labour market integration. Specifically it should be illustrated if both countries managed to cope with the weaknesses and shortcomings that European policy recommendations identified in relation to unemployment benefits, social assistance schemes, parental leave systems and childcare subsidies. The attempt to grasp which role (European) ‘ideas’ were able to play in national welfare modernisation processes between 1998-2008 constituted a key consideration in this regard. By using a case-study design it is worked out that Sweden and Great Britain followed their European recommendations; not completely but significantly. Yet, causal connections can hardly be established and the overall development doesn’t constitute a ‘top-down’ implementation of EU recommendations. In both cases a discourse analysis reveals that the realization of European ideas rather depends on party-political preferences and the arrangement of national discourses. It is shown that ideas become powerful in puzzling situations when existing discourses are challenged and in line with the work of authors like Jørgen Goul Anderssen or Vivien A. Schmidt this thesis confirms the importance of an actor-centred perspective for explaining welfare policies. Considering Sweden as a socialdemocratic and Great Britain as a liberal welfare regime the PhD thesis aims as well at contributing to a better understanding of how policy reforms affected these two differing regime types. For the time during the Lisbon Agenda it holds that they moved ‘closer’ to each other and that welfare modernisation can be described as an exercise of making the social democratic welfare regime a better social democratic welfare regime and of making the liberal welfare regime a better liberal welfare regime. Yet, in 2008 the international financial crisis hit the EU and two years later the Lisbon Strategy was replaced by the EU 2020 Strategy. The PhD thesis takes these developments into account, illustrates the major changes in Swedish and British welfare policies and compares them to the research period. Rather untypical developments in Sweden lead to the conclusion that there might be a certain ‘carousel-effect’ which seems to kind of reallocate ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ between the different welfare regimes. For Great Britain the conclusion is drawn, that the conservative coalition government triggered a transformation process which wasn’t first and foremost caused by the international financial crisis but represented more of a political choice to make the liberal welfare regime more liberal.

From the 1980s onwards, there has been a general transformation in social policy in line with the transformation of the welfare state worldwide. While the neoliberal restructuring of capital and the state has initiated this transformation in the 1980s, neoliberal globalization and competitiveness pressures upon the competition states have accelerated this process through necessitating the reordering of priorities around policies that pursue market ascendancy. As a result, the international governance framework has been reshaped in a way that aims to separate economic policy from the political influences of the governments and to provide capital a &lsquo / protected domain&rsquo / , which refers to &ldquo / new constitutionalism&rdquo / . On the other hand, the Europeanization process can be described as the extension of new constitutionalism in the EU level / therefore, it reshapes the social policy understanding through confining it with the boundaries of the EU economy. The thesis attempts to explain the processes of neoliberal restructuring, new constitutionalism and Europeanization to provide a theoretical framework to the analysis of the social security reform in Turkey. It aims to examine the impact of the processes of new constitutionalism and Europeanization on the social security reform and to analyze the reform process taking into consideration class relations and, then, to make a critical analysis of the transformation.

Viešojo administravimo magistro baigiamojo darbo tema „Nacionalinės Lisabonos strategijos įgyvendinimo programos tikslų užimtumo srityje pasiekimo vertinimas“ yra aktuali tuo, kad joje pasiūlytas aiškus rodiklių modelis, kuris leistų nacionaliniu lygmeniu geriausiai įvertinti užimtumo politikos tikslų pasiekimą, bei pateikti siūlymai dėl esamų rodiklių tobulinimo ir naujų rengimo. Tema aktuali jos taikomuoju aspektu, nes valstybių narių vykdomos politikos, taip pat ir užimtumo, stebėsena, analizė ir vertinimas yra Europos Sąjungos bendros politikos koordinavimo proceso esmė. Pasirinktas tyrimo objektas ¬– Nacionalinės užimtumo politikos tikslų pasiekimo vertinimas. Jis sąlygoja temos naujumą, nes iki šiol harmoninga tikslų pasiekimo vertinimo sistema nebuvo sukurta. Tyrimo tikslas: Remiantis atnaujintos Lisabonos strategijos nuostatomis ir Europos Komisijos metodine bei analitine medžiaga dėl užimtumo politikos vertinimo, parinkti statistinių rodiklių rinkinį, leisiantį efektyviai ir patikimai vertinti užimtumo politikos tikslų pasiekimą nacionaliniu lygmeniu. Teorinei MBD daliai yra taikytas abstraktus tyrimo metodas, įgalinęs išanalizuoti mokslinę literatūrą, leidžiančią apibūdinti ir pagrįsti užimtumo politikos vietą valstybės valdymo sistemoje bei išryškinti užimtumo pokyčius sąlygojančių veiksnių tarpusavio sąsajas. Naudojantis analitiniu – kritiniu metodu teorinėje darbo dalyje pateikiamos pagrindinės sąvokos, susijusios su užimtumo politika bei jos vertinimu; aptarti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The Master‘s Work in Public Administration ″Evaluation of the Employment Policy Progress achieved while implementing the National Lisbon Strategy Implementation Programme″ is a point at issue because it presents the newly created model of indicators enabling to carry out the evaluation of the progress achieved while seeking goals and targets of the national employment policy at the national level. The Master‘s Work is important due to its application nature as monitoring, analysis and evaluation are the core elements of the coordination of the Member States policies. The topic of the research is the employment policy evaluation. The purpose of the research is on the basis of the statements of the renewed Lisbon strategy and methodological and analytical papers of the European Commission to design the model of relevant statistical indicators which could allow to evaluate the progress of the national employment policy. The abstract research method used in the theoretical chapter of the Paper allowed to make an analysis of the research literature and to identify the place of the employment policy within the state administration system, the interaction of different factors and forces having impact to employment. The second part of the Paper based on the outputs of systematic comparative and logic analysis is dedicated to the evolution of the European Employment Strategy, methods of coordination of the employment policies implemented by Member States as well as the number of... [to full text]

The first chapter characterizes the common trade policy of the EU both from factual and institutional aspect. The second chapter describes the EU intra-trade, with focus on the European single market and implementation of Lisbon Strategy. The third chapter inquires into the EU extra-trade, with focus on the EU bilateral and multilateral trade relations, the WTO multilateral trade negotiations and some of the most famous trade disputes of the EU. The last chapter is dedicated to the changes of the Czech Republic trade policy which result from its integration in the common trade policy.