This diploma thesis focuses on competitiveness of the Czech Republic compared with other states of the Visegrad Group and Slovenia. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part is aimed at specification of the term competitiveness and the criticism of the concept of national competitiveness. The second part focuses on measuring of competitiveness. The last part analyzes competitiveness of the Czech Republic and other observed states.

The aim of this dissertation is to provide a detailed quantitative and qualitative assessment of the banking system currently in place in the Visegrad countries, as well as its transition from the Soviet system to a capitalist market-oriented system. The empirical part of this study focuses on estimating the stability of the banking system, the impact of regulations and supervision on the stability of this system the performance and effectiveness (productivity) of the system, and the impact of banking sector performance on economic growth. Two different methods are used for the data analysis: panel data regression with random effect model and traditional ratio analysis based on DuPont formula and other financial ratios, which were constructed using historical data taken from Bank Scope, together with random-effects GLS regression. The results suggest that, as measured by z-score, Slovakia had the most stable banking sector in most years, followed by Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Additionally, according to the regression analysis, the imposition of strict requirements for banks applying for licenses in Visegrad countries has led to greater banking system stability, while prohibiting additional banking activities-such as real estate, insurance, securities, or other non-financial...

Practically every single state sees energy security as one of the main security and political topics nowadays. Its significance is on the rise. Although there is a continuous progress regarding renewable sources of energy, the world remains largely dependent on non- renewable resources. They are unevenly distributed across the world, especially in case of oil and natural gas. This results in dividing the countries between importers and exporters. This diploma thesis focuses on energy cooperation or more precisely on motivations for energy cooperation between member states of the Visegrad group. These four Central European countries share some similarities. In energy area they all are the importers of both oil and gas and they rely on the Russian Federation as their main supplier. Energy cooperation within the Visegrad group is usually explained by two theoretical approaches - realism or neoliberal institutionalism. This thesis introduces these approaches and works with a hypothesis that energy cooperation between the member states of the Visegrad group is best explained by neoliberal institutionalism. The thesis represents a qualitative study and uses the method of a comparative case study. The analytic part of the thesis is divided into four case studies regarding each member state of the V4....

Illegal immigration is one of the current problems that occupy the European agenda. With the beginning of the revolutionary movements called 'the Arab Spring' in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe has faced massive uncontrolled migration waves. In this period, the asylum applications in European countries have broken a record in the history of the EU. This situation has impelled the European Union and its member states to take certain measures. However, political disagreements were observed over some of the measures taken by the EU. In light of these developments, this thesis will focus on illegal immigration movements from the Middle East and North Africa region to Europe right after the beginning of the Arab Spring (in other words from at the end of 2010 to now). In this context, this master's thesis aims to give the immigration and asylum policies of the European Union aiming to prevent these illegal immigration waves and to evaluate the political positions of the Visegrad countries during this period.

Diploma thesis "Aplication of Second order election theory on European election in Visegrad states" examines a theory of second-order election and aplicates it on European elections in the Visegrad states. Since this theory was build on election results in founding states of the EU and this theory was many times proved in western Europe, the main goal is to find out whether the election results of the Visegrad states concur with the theory of second- order election or not. In that case goal of this thesis will be to find out where and why there is differences. The thesis is divided into three parts. First theoretical part deals with all theories which were tried to explain different outcomes from different types of elections. Second part introduces our hypotheses and methodology by which we examine these hypotheses. Third part analyses the results of elections from selected countries. First four chapters of the third part deal with selected countries separately. Fifth chapter compares our results from the Visegrad states among them and then it compares these results with results from the countries of EU-15.

This thesis intends to establish whether and to what degree possible explanations for the Visegrad Group´s response to the 2015-2016 migration crisis can be provided by Postfunctionalism and Intergovernmentalism. The purpose of this study is not to explicitly test the two theories but to use them as tools to better understand the case under analysis, by applying a non-competitive approach. Based on the elaboration of 21 official statements released by the Visegrad Group between 2015-2016, findings show that both theories could (partially) confirmed my initial hypotheses. I conclude that security matters (as Intergovernmentalist suggests) consisted in the lion´s share in the statements, while economy matters (as also suggested by Intergovernmentalism) did not. When it comes to identity matters (as Postfunctionalism suggests), I conclude that those were used in connection to security matters, with the aim of forging a common European response to the crisis and to justify the partisan reaction of the Visegrad Group.

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 aim of this work is to analyse the mutual relationship of sub-regional cooperation structures and the dominant integration structure: the European Union. We follow the evolution of mutual relationship between Visegrad Cooperation and the EU from the establishment of such sub-regional cooperation structure until today. Similarly, we analyse the relationship of the Baltic Cooperation and the EU. Later, we compare the evolution of both cooperation types on the background of their integration into the EU and thus identify their specifics. In the final part, we widen the research scope on the whole European Union and even more on the European continent and we try to identify and categorize existing cooperation and integration structures in this wider European region. As a conclusion we introduce brief characteristics of sub-regional cooperation and integration process in Europe in the relation to the EU and suggest future development.

The thesis introduces European regional policy which provides the framework for policy of economic, social and territorial cohesion. It characterizes its objectives and financial instruments. The second part of the thesis is focused on Visegrad group in the central European region. The most important chapter deals with drawing money from structural funds and its allocation in the regions in each V4 country. The countries are also compared according to selected criteria. Final part of the thesis presents the future of the EU cohesion policy.

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...