This study investigates minilateral partnerships, also referred to as regional cooperations, with the purpose of identifying whether these types of partnerships may be perceived as cohesive political grouping in the EP and if such cooperations influence the way in which MEPs debate and vote. The study uses a combined qualitative and quantitative method to study the behaviour of MEPs from the Visegrad Group when debating and voting on migration and asylum policy, during the Eight European Parliament. The thesis argues that the studied subject, i.e., the Visegrad Group, and the discussed issue i.e., migration and asylum policy, jointly generate a most likely case allowing for a reasonable degree of generalization. The study finds that the Visegrad Group is a politically incohesive group during the beginning of the studied time period, but that its cohesion notes a substantial increase towards its end. Despite the increase, the consistency of the Visegrad Group MEPs debating and voting as a group is found to be below the average cohesion of the European party groups. The study further confirms earlier research stating that national consideration and party politics remains the two strongest determinants of MEP debating and voting behaviour. The thesis concludes that the influence of minilateralism on MEPs is insignificant.

The process of region building and regionalization is an emerging phenomenon examined in the same time by historians, geographers, political scientists, economists diplomats and other scientific profiles. The concepts of region and regionalization could appear at different spatial scales, such as supra-state, sub-state or as a cross-border units and processes. Furthermore region and regionalization are complex for defining because they incorporate different narratives and categories as regional identity, spatial borders and delineating, cultural and social homogeneity, political and economic interdependence etc. Regions are invented, re-invented or constructed with purpose to reply to different functional, territorial and administrative purposes. In the era of ongoing globalization and deepening of the European integration, regions are becoming powerful tool for achieving different goals and interests. Nowadays regions, regional cooperation, regional identity are becoming a terms very often used in political and public discourses for different kind of mobilization. Western Balkan, similarly as Visegrad and Baltic regional formats is one of the emerging spatial formation that is appearing in the context of EU integration policies. In Macedonian political and public discourse these tendencies are...

The aim of the thesis is to reveal the relation between business cycle and the number of transactions considering mergers and acquisitions. For this purpose the appropriate macroeconomics indicators have been chosen. The base hypothesis, which stands for the procyclical development of transactions, was examined by regression analysis of panel dataset containing quarterly based data from The Visegrad Group countries in the period from 2000 to 2014. The ordinary least square method together with robust estimation of standard deviation provided the confirmation about positive relation of the quarter change of GDP as the main explanatory variable and the number of transactions. Nevertheless, more robust findings appeared in case of significance of stock markets and public debt. The positive relation of the stock price was proven to be in accordance with the behavioral theory. The increase in transaction activity is capitalized through the profit from the sold of overprized stocks. Unexpected result about positive relation of public debt required the specification of assumption about the lower preference of smooth consumption of The Visegrad group households.

This thesis deals with the Visegrad Group (V4) as on of the cooperating coalitions in the European Union (EU). Then, a deeper analysis of one common topic of V4 in EU is provided - analysis of V4 activities in the framework of Eastern Partnership. Therefore the aim of the thesis is to analyse concrete actions of V4 within the policy of Eastern Partnership and choose those that contribute the most to the development of Eastern Partnership.

The diploma thesis is focused on Visegrad Group citizens' trust in nonprofit organizations. Public trust in nonprofit organization is crucial for functioning of nonprofit organizations in society and for their societal status. The diploma thesis discusses trust in postcommunist countries which is generally considered weak due to their past. The purpose of the diploma thesis is to find out if diffences in trust in nonprofit organization of V4 countries citizens exist with regard to educatiion and age of citizens. The first and also thereotical part of the thesis consists of theoretical concepts of civil society, nonprofit organization and relevant types of trust. Empirical part of the thesis consists of methodology, analytical steps, intepretation, results and conclusion. In order to test the two hypotheses based on expected relation between trust in nonprofit organization, age and education the ordinal regression was used as a research method which led to a discovery of statistically significant relation between variables. Key words: civil society, nonprofit organization, trust in nonprofit organization, Visegrad Group

Do investors make bad decisions following the clock change? If so, there would be traces of such anomaly in market data. In this thesis, we investigate these traces focusing on the stock markets of the Visegrad Group, known to be pre- vailingly illiquid. We combine the most recent financial data with the ARIMA- GARCH framework while employing brand-new Bayesian techniques. Using several robustness checks, we show that such e ect cannot be traced in these markets. While we do not claim to challenge the seminal works in this field, we do support the evidence that the e ects of daylight saving policy do not pertain to less liquid markets. JEL Classification C11, G12, G14, G41 Keywords daylight saving time, market anomaly, Visegrad Group, Bayesian analysis Title Daylight Saving Time and Stock Market Re- turns: Evidence from the Visegrad Group

Wage inequality is a well-established phenomenon of contemporary labour markets both in the United States and Europe, frequently discussed in the contemporary labour economics literature. In the following paper, based on harmonised data of the EU-SILC database, a semi parametric technique of quantile regression has been applied together with the traditional OLS method in order to estimate the impact of returns to education on wages in the Visegrad Group countries, namely the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The main aim of the analysis is to examine the returns to education in these countries in order to observe differences appearing across them as well as within selected groups formed according to both the highest level of education attained and a number of years spent in a paid work (experience).

This thesis aims to scrutinize the Visegrad Quadruple Initiative as a device of the Central European countries in the process of involving into the re-negotiations in Europe and in world politics. The thesis argues that the Visegrad group was built in order to respond the demands of changing Europe and Euro-Atlantic structures, and thus to overcome the double process of transition and integration. However that was not the only reason to launch the Visegrad regional cooperation. The group produced an affirmative discourse that its members are distinguished from the other countries in transition, so that they are constantly one step forward to &lsquo / return to Europe&rsquo / . In the aftermath of the eastern enlargements of NATO and the EU alike, the original mission of the group, integration with the West, was achieved. That created a profound discussion about the survival of the group. As it is argued in this thesis, the group, as a prosperous and substantial regional cooperation, should rather continue to work in order to have more words to say in the re-negotiations processes. Another argument of the thesis is that the Visegrad group, taking Benelux group as a model in its continuity, is beneficial to produce a common foreign policy tendency among its members as long as the interests of its members are overlapping, otherwise the group is just being a political platform in which its members can share their views in such areas as regional regulations.

This thesis aims to scrutinize the Visegrad Quadruple Initiative as a device of the Central European countries in the process of involving into the re-negotiations in Europe and in world politics. The thesis argues that the Visegrad group was built in order to respond the demands of changing Europe and Euro-Atlantic structures, and thus to overcome the double process of transition and integration. However that was not the only reason to launch the Visegrad regional cooperation. The group produced an affirmative discourse that its members are distinguished from the other countries in transition, so that they are constantly one step forward to &lsquo / return to Europe&rsquo / . In the aftermath of the eastern enlargements of NATO and the EU alike, the original mission of the group, integration with the West, was achieved. That created a profound discussion about the survival of the group. As it is argued in this thesis, the group, as a prosperous and substantial regional cooperation, should rather continue to work in order to have more words to say in the re-negotiations processes. Another argument of the thesis is that the Visegrad group, taking Benelux group as a model in its continuity, is beneficial to produce a common foreign policy tendency among its members as long as the interests of its members are overlapping, otherwise the group is just being a political platform in which its members can share their views in such areas as regional regulations.

The goal of this master thesis is to analyse the potential of LNG for the Central European region with the emphasis on the strategic role of LNG imports in strengthening the energy security of the region and its possible role in replacing the traditional fuels in the transport sector of the Visegrad Group countries. The increasing availability of LNG, together with the predictions of its rapidly growing global supply in the following years, offers a window of opportunity for the Central European states. Particularly when it comes to their energy security, as the growing access to LNG supplies translates into a growing competition for the existing pipeline supplies from Russia. Furthermore, the thesis also focuses on the potential of LNG as an alternative fuel in the inland waterway and heavy duty road transportation of the Visegrad Group countries and the steps that these countries take to integrate LNG fuel in their transport sector.