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.

Main purpose of this thesis is to find out how self sufficient concerning the energy raw materials are countries within Visegrad group. Further purpose of my thesis is to analyse total primary energy supply, the structure of energy supply in countries of Visegrad group and its developments in last 4 decades. Furher I want to reveal how the structure of total primary energy supply and structure of electricity generation reflect the disponibility of raw materials in these countries and transformation of economics in the nineties. A sub-objective of my work will examine how countries of the Visegrad Four use the potential of renewable energy sources and how they support it.

This work is focused on supporting of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Visegrad Four (V4), i.e. the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Poland and Hungary in 2007 - 2013. The work analyzes the governmental support of SMEs in each of these V4 countries, which includes the situation of the SMEs, institutions providing support and individual programs of support. This part is followed by the SWOT analysis of support systems in V4 countries. The final chapter is devoted to the practical application of support system of SMEs in the V4 countries on the example of state assistance to entrepreneurs affected by the floods in June 2013. This work gives a comprehensive look at the issue of support of SMEs in the V4 countries and provides detailed understanding of their position and importance of small and medium-sized enterprises at both, national and international level.

The subject of this thesis is regulation of lobbying in the countries of the Visegrad Group (V4) -- specifically statutory regulation of lobbying. The work gives a comprehensive overview of the development of regulation of lobbying in V4 member states from the very beginning until now. Main aim is to answer questions related to lobbying such as: "is there a lobbying regulation in V4 members", "what is the quality of that regulation" and "is there any common signs shared across the national regulation of lobbying". To achieve the desired objective thesis uses descriptive, comparative and analytical methods. Thesis consists of two main logical units, which are divided into five chapters, an introduction and a conclusion. The first unit contains three introductory chapters. This section is devoted to the history of lobbying, the definition of lobbying and theoretical concepts of regulation of lobbying. The second unit is completely dedicated to the legal regulation of lobbying in the V4 countries. Part of this unit is also the final comparison and analysis of the legal regulation of lobbying in these countries and answers to questions mentioned in the introduction.

The aim of the submitted thesis is macroeconomic analysis, comparison and evaluation of nominal and real convergence of the Visegrad Group states with EU-15 states. By the help of regression model, one can state that in years 2004--2008 countries of V4 reached Beta - convergence with EU-15. However, this did not hold for the critical period in 2008--2012 when mainly Hungary lagged behind. There was proved a positive relationship between real and nominal convergence wherewith Balassa-Samuelson Effect for EU states was confirmed. The Czech Republic has always shown a lower nominal value than it would correspond to its GDP per capita, still it approximated to regression line over time. Other V4 states registered inverse course. During period 2004--2012, the Czech Republic performed Maastricht conver-gence criteria best from V4 states. Contrariwise, Hungary had the worst position of the ob-served period.

The thesis deals with the analysis of competitiveness of the Visegrad Group. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the competitiveness of the Visegrad countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The countries will be examined in today's competitive environment within the Visegrad Group and the European Union. The analyze is based on data available from public sources and statistics. The work is divided into three chapters. The first part is devoted to the theoretical definition of competitiveness and methods of how to measure the competitiveness of the state. The second chapter introduces Visegrad Group and its common characteristics. The another part of the work is focused on the macroeconomic indicators - inflation, government debt and GDP per capita. The foreign trade and territorial and commodity structure of exports in the last ten years are also examined in this part. In the third chapter there is an analysis of the competitiveness based on investigation of labor productivity, labor costs, expenditures on research and development and tertiary education. In conclusion there is an evaluation of competitiveness of Visegrad Group based on the Global Competitiveness Index in 2011-2012.

This thesis examines the process of coordination of economic policies of the European Union on the example of the Visegrad countries. The introductory chapter describes the development of the economic policy coordination, discusses the key legal documents that most affected the process of coordination, and assesses the importance of the coordination for the European integration . The second chapter focuses on the latest changes in the legislation relating to the coordination of economic policies. The last chapter describes the influence of the most essential tools for coordinating the countries of the Visegrad Group. Assesses the extent differences involvement Slovakia coordination process, as the only state that groups that have adopted the euro . Assesses the impact of the crisis on developing coordination and lightly touching the issue of the future adoption of the euro in the countries of the Visegrad Group, which still use the national currency.

Thesis deals with the the categories of competitiveness, which is inserted into the conditions of globalized international markets. Which advantages and pitfalls globalization bears, describes the first chapter of the thesis. The next chapter defines the notion of competitiveness, its concepts and different sources. The third part offers possible indicators of competitiveness. The offer also includes a manual for the evaluation of results. It also explains possible pitfalls in the construction of indicators. The main objective was to assess the competitive position of the Czech Republic within the Visegrad Group according to chosen indicators. Based on the results, we can conclude that the Czech economy has the best competitive advantage within the countries surveyed in the manufacturing industry, which is also the core of the Czech economy.