Abstract not provided.

The study at hand aims at understanding the "twisted fate" of the EU's initiative to provide transparency of payments in oil, gas, and mining deals. The European Commission in October 2011 followed the lead of the US Dodd-Frank Act in establishing strict disclosure requirements for businesses in the extractive industries. Its initiative demanded annual reporting of any payments made by such enterprises to public authorities of commodity exporting countries, in order to mitigate corruption of public officials via transparency of payments. Praised by NGOs, the initiative was heavily opposed by the German government and experienced efforts by the very same to water its efficacy down. Germany's uncompromising position prolonged the search for an agreement between Council of Ministers and European Parliament until April 2013. It is hypothesized that the German opposition originates in highly effective interest representation of influential domestic actors, dismissive of a tight transparency regime. To validate this, Moravcsik's Liberal Intergovernmentalism is the theoretical framework of choice. At its core lies a genuine two-step of domestic societal actors, upgrading their particular interests to "national preferences" and the subsequent agency of their governments in rational bargaining with others. However, in order for this to apply in European everyday politics, theoretical amendments have to be made. Namely, the originally disregarded influence of supranational institutions as well as a shift of bargaining arenas has to be sufficiently respected by the theoretical frame.

Presented diploma thesis is disciplined interpretative case study, which examines bilateral relations in energy field between the Czech Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany in between 2004 - 2014. The thesis analyses intergovernmental relationship between the two actors using Andrew Moravcsik's Liberal Intergovernmentalist Approach theory. The aim of the diploma thesis is to define the character of such a relationship and its development throughout the defined period. To this goal, three hypotheses have been set. They focus on the asymmetry of mutual relations, impact of economic interests on their formation and on possible transfer of unsolved issues to the EU level. National interest is being defined throughout the strategic documents analysis. First chapter defines actors, who represent the state in mutual relations and advocate national preferences. Second chapter analyses bilateral contacts, the frequency of energy connected issues at the bilateral meetings and the shifts in the relationship. Third chapter examines the area of unplanned power flows from Germany to the Czech Republic as they represent the most pressing issue in bilateral energy relations. Mutual cooperation is assessed in the last part of the second and third chapter. In its conclusions, the diploma thesis verifies all presented...