In 2000, the EU, under the influence of its current progress in the integration process, established a list of fairly ambitious goals in the economic, social and environmental issues, which it had wanted to achieve by 2010. The reform program has been named the Lisbon Strategy and has often been paraphrased as "catch up and overtake the U. S." Shortly after its launch, however, it began to be clear that such radical reform was not realistically possible, especially because of its complexity, a lack of willingness of Member States to implement these reforms and a poor set of implementation tools. The Lisbon Strategy has been followed by a new EU global reform document for 2020, Europe 2020, mainly due to the fact that the problems plaguing European countries remain the same and they haven't been adequately resolved by the Lisbon Strategy. The aim of this paper is to analyze the implementation of the Lisbon strategy in the Czech Republic, identify in which areas the CR has been successful, and in which it has lagged behind the performance of other EU members as well as where it could achieve a more significant progress. At the same time, the work examines the reasons why the Lisbon Strategy, though a very interesting concept of reform, has remained out of public interest, and its achievements haven't...

In the period 2005-2010 the Czech Republic has exhibited a growth in computer and Internet usage across society. As is to be expected from the literature, younger generations, especially what has been termed Generation Z, show significantly higher levels of computer literacy than older generations. Computer literacy is also at the highest level among the most highly educated and among households with children. Government policies to increase computer literacy have had positive effects, however they have only been a partial success. All schoolchildren have access to computers and the Internet, however there have been no effective policies for increasing computer literacy among the adult population. The result of this lack of policy is that the Czech Republic, in a position common to much of Europe, failed to meet the challenges of the Lisbon Strategy and will likely fail to meet the targets of Europe 2020.

The current economic strategy of the European Union - the Europe 2020 Strategy - has defined five measurable Headline Targets to enhance economic growth and allowed the Member States to set their own national numerical values for these targets. This thesis analyses quality of this target setting process. First, it tries to figure out whether the targets have been set better than in the preceding Lisbon Strategy. Second, it examines whether the National Targets have been defined clearly and unequivocally. Third and the most important, based on original empirical analysis, the thesis evaluates whether the National Targets have been determined reasonably with respect to general capacities of individual European economies. The main results reveal that some learning from the Lisbon Strategy has been made, but the quality of the National Targets is insufficient and should be increased. JEL Classification E61, F55, O52 Keywords Europe 2020, strategy, European Union, national targets, empirical analysis, MULTIMOORA, Ratio System of MOORA, Reference point of MOORA, Full Multiplicative Form, Lisbon Strategy Author's e-mail PavlaBrizova@seznam.cz Supervisor's e-mail katerina.smidkova@cnb.cz

The aim of the thesis is to assess the economy of Spain and its position in the European Union. The European integration processes significantly influenced the development of democracy in Spain as a member state of EU. The period after Franco regime would last undoubtedly much longer and it would grow less dynamically without these processes. The influence of EU affected not only the Spanish economy, but also the current position of Spanish monarchy in Europe and in the whole world. The thesis is structured in three main parts. To be able to assess the Spanish economy during its membership in the EU, it is essential to study the procedures of negotiations between the candidate country and the Community. That is the reason why the first part is engaged in the pre-entry phase. The second part examines in detail the development of the economy after the reintroduction of democracy in the country. It deals mainly with the macroeconomic tendencies, their causes together with consequences. The progress concerns the economic situation in Spain before the entry to the Community, in the second half of eighties, as well as during the nineties. The thesis does not forget to be engaged in the current situation in the new millennium and it also outlines the possible development in the following years. The last part is devoted to the position and the influence of Spain on the main integration directions in the European Union. The coherence and the extent of evaluation can be considered one of the benefits of this work. The thesis introduces the complex view of the Spanish economy since the entry to the EU. It also deals with possible following tendencies. The understanding of the development is facilitated by a large number of graphs and tables, which help to outline the essence of the topic.

Thesis is focused on regional policy of the European Union (known as cohesion policy). The goal of the regional policy is to reduce regional disparities among the member countries of the European Union. Therefore, regional policy has an important role among other policies of the European Union. In the period from 2007 to 2013, regional spending account for 36% of the EU budget. The recent enlargement to 27 Member States has dramatically increased disparity levels across the EU. The new Member States have lower levels of income per head and employment rates than other EU countries. This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part characterizes development of the regional policy, its principles and financial instruments. The second part describes enlargement of the European Union to 27 member states, its impacts, reform of the regional policy and the time period from 2007 to 2013. Different views on impacts of the regional policy together with short case study are added. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate the convergence process among the old and new Member states.

Bibliografický záznam VLACH, Michael. Evropské ekonomické vládnutí - možnost nebo nutnost? Praha, 2011. 95 s. Diplomová práce (Mgr.) Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních věd, Institut mezinárodních studií. Katedra západoevropských studií. Vedoucí diplomové práce Prof. Ing. Luděk Urban, CSC., Jean Monnet Professor Abstract Diploma Thesis "European Economic Governance - an option or the necessity?" deals with the current debate on the reform of European economic governance (EEG). It focuses on the genesis of the pre-crisis European economic governance, primarily on the Economic and Monetary Union, and on the performance of the EMU and the features of EEG before and during the crisis. It investigates the issues and challenges that arisen largely from the aftermath of the crisis such as imbalances on the Internal Market due to serious competitiveness issues between the Member States, lack of crisis management, financial supervision etc. The common cause of these problems, the insufficient economic governance is identified having source largely in the original design of EMU which was adopted largely for economic reasons but contemporary political limits restrained the Economic union and macroeconomic coordination provisions thus enabling the current situation. In the final part the proposed and implemented...

European Union faced several external challenges in the beginning of the 21st century. Its enlargement to 24 member states led to a state of dissimilar and not well interconnected economies in need of a new model of external competitiveness. Finding the model and, more importantly, delivering it on community level, was a new task of the European Commission, especially after re-launch of the Lisbon strategy in 2005. Yet, there was another challenge for EU that was not so easy to address by the Commission: the relative weakening of EU's external economic action comparing to new increasingly assertive policies of other international players, especially BRICs. Was it possible for the Commission focus only on supporting EU competitiveness without any external action, as was expected by articles of the Treaty of Nice? As the thesis argues, indeed there was an external action of the Commission before the Lisbon treaty, through its public support of SME internationalization within the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). A neoinstitutional analysis of the issues on two levels is carried out: Firstly on the level of European institutions (motives, relevant contexts and institutional rules), secondly, on the level of secondary actors (SMEs, NGOs, CIP executive agency EACI), where the...

<p>The social dimension in the EU, explored through the document texts of the Treaty of Rome, the Lisbon Strategy, the Social Policy Agenda and the Swedish Strategy Report</p><p>This paper explores the social dimension of EU social policy, except the aspects of the economic and labour market. The EU documents reveal an underlying line of thought stemming from the alignment of the six founding countries, spearheaded by France, with the conservative corporatist welfare model. As one of four European welfare models, the conservative corporatist model emphasises labour market issues, corporate social responsibility and the subsidiarity principle in EU social policy. It also influences how the texts define the terms social, social policy and social exclusion. The definitions determine how policymakers combat problems such as social exclusion and identify the policy issues to be included in EU social policy.</p><p>The Swedish Strategy shows how the country is responding to the objectives that it has been assigned by the EU and how it plans to attain them. Other key issues include how Sweden defines and plans to address the problem of social exclusion domestically.</p><p>The Lisbon Strategy and the Social Policy Agenda of the EU underline the importance of civil trust. Accordingly, I have included Bo Rothstein's theory of social trust, which demonstrates that open dialogue with citizens and written declarations of cooperation in the EU are not enough. Actions that instil trust and impartial universal institutions are also required for the European project to work. Thus, civil trust in the EU requires the existence of such institutions.</p><p> </p>

The social dimension in the EU, explored through the document texts of the Treaty of Rome, the Lisbon Strategy, the Social Policy Agenda and the Swedish Strategy Report This paper explores the social dimension of EU social policy, except the aspects of the economic and labour market. The EU documents reveal an underlying line of thought stemming from the alignment of the six founding countries, spearheaded by France, with the conservative corporatist welfare model. As one of four European welfare models, the conservative corporatist model emphasises labour market issues, corporate social responsibility and the subsidiarity principle in EU social policy. It also influences how the texts define the terms social, social policy and social exclusion. The definitions determine how policymakers combat problems such as social exclusion and identify the policy issues to be included in EU social policy. The Swedish Strategy shows how the country is responding to the objectives that it has been assigned by the EU and how it plans to attain them. Other key issues include how Sweden defines and plans to address the problem of social exclusion domestically. The Lisbon Strategy and the Social Policy Agenda of the EU underline the importance of civil trust. Accordingly, I have included Bo Rothstein's theory of social trust, which demonstrates that open dialogue with citizens and written declarations of cooperation in the EU are not enough. Actions that instil trust and impartial universal institutions are also required for the European project to work. Thus, civil trust in the EU requires the existence of such institutions.

Darbo aktualumas. 2000 m. Europos Taryba patvirtino Lisabonos strategiją, kuria nustatė Europos Sąjungos strateginius tikslus, siekiant žiniomis grindžiamoje ekonomikoje padidinti užimtumą, stiprinti ekonomines reformas ir socialinę sanglaudą. Per pirmuosius penkerius Lisabonos strategijos įgyvendinimo metus ES mastu norimų rezultatų nebuvo pasiekta, todėl buvo priimtas sprendimas orientuotis į nacionalinių Lisabonos strategijos įgyvendinimo programų kūrimą. Šiame darbe analizuojamos Lisabonos strategijos ir 4 pagrindinių Lietuvos ilgalaikių strategijų sąsajos. Šios strategijos dėl bendros kilmės, panašių vizijų ir siekių, Lisabonos procese turėtų būti įgyvendinamos kartu su Nacionaline Lisabonos strategijos įgyvendinimo programa, atsižvelgiant į bendrus prioritetus, koordinuojant veiksmus ir planuojant tikslingą projektų bei reformų finansavimą. Darbo objektas – Lisabonos strategija. Darbo tikslas – sukurti Nacionalinės Lisabonos strategijos įgyvendinimo sinergetinį modelį, kuris užtikrintų efektyvesnį Lisabonos strategijos įgyvendinimą atsižvelgiant į Lietuvos strateginius prioritetus. Praktinė darbo reikšmė grindžiama Lisabonos strategijos įgyvendinimo Lietuvoje sinergetinio modelio sukūrimu bei jo analize. Teorinė darbo reikšmė orientuota į tinkamą Lisabonos strategijos ir 4 pagrindinių Lietuvos ilgalaikių strategijų įgyvendinimo koordinavimą bei makroekonominės politikos suderinamumą siekiant sinergijos efekto. / The relevance of the study. European Council has confirmed Lisbon strategy in year 2000, according to this strategy European‘s Council strategical aims were set, by way of increasing business in economy, grounded by knowledge, consolidate economical reforms and social cohesion. There wasn‘t obtained desirable results in the degree of EU during the first five years of realization of Lisbon strategy, thus there was accepted a decision oriented around creation of programs of nacional Lisbon strategy realization. There are analized connections between Lisbon strategies and 4 general permanent Lithuania‘s strategies in this issue. In Lisbon process these strategies should be realized together with Nacional Lisbon‘s strategy realization program, because of their common origin, similar visions and objects. This should be realized considering to common priorities, cordinating actions and planning purposeful sponsorship to projects and reforms. The object of the study – Lisbon strategy. The aim of the study – to create a synergy model of realization of Nacional Lisbon strategy, whick will make the realization of Lisbon strategy more effetive, considering to Lithuania‘s strategical priorities. Practical import of this issue is going entirely by realization of Lisbon strategy in Lithuania, creation of synergy model and it‘s analyse. Theorical import of this issue is oriented to suitable cordination of Lisbon‘s strategy and 4 general permanent Lithuania‘s strategies realization and... [to full text]