The subject of the thesis is the integration of financial markets of the new member states of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as the NMS). According to the standard economic theory, the process of financial integration should be associated with several positive effects, among others a) the enforcement of the law of one price in the form of the interest rate parity, b) the smoothening and the synchronisation of the consumption growth among countries, c) the increased diversification of investors portfolios, and d) the decreased dependence of domestic investments on national savings. These envisaged effects serve in the thesis as the indicators of the integration of NMS financial markets with the global financial market. These indicators show that the degree of the financial integration differs among the NMS, despite the fact that they all went through the process of integration with the EU. However, the order of the NMS based on the degree of their financial markets integration could not have been determined as each test indicated a different order. However, most tests indicated that there is a trend towards more integration of the NMS financial markets as the dependence of the domestic consumption growth on the global consumption growth has been increasing and the dependence of domestic investments on national savings has been decreasing. Surprisingly, the indicators did not prove the hypothesis that NMS financial markets are more integrated with the financial market of the EU, despite the fact that these countries had to open their markets to investors from the EU and had to harmonize their legislative requirements. Contrary to the results of previous articles, indicators used in the thesis show that majority of the analysed puzzles in international economics disappeared for large developed markets like the USA. On the other hand, these puzzles persisted for the NMS. Given that majority of the NMS adopted euro during the period under investigation, results presented above indicate that the financial markets of the NMS were not fully integrated with the financial market of the EU and therefore one of the conditions for the existence of the optimum currency area has not been met. Such result also contradicts the hypothesis of the endogeneity of the optimum currency area as the adoption of the common currency did not improve the degree of financial market integration.

The aim of the thesis is to identify the determiants of social expenditure levels in EU member states and estimate the sensitivities. The analysis is based on the fixed effects model with robust standard errors. Seven out of the 24 variables, that have been tested, are statistically significant. Social expenditure levels are positively dependent on population ageing, unemployment rate and economic level, and negatively on economic growth. The openness of economy and public debt ratio are also robust. The presence of a christian party in government is also statistically significant, however, the coefficient is not theoretically consistent. The sensitivity of social expenditure level to the share of population aged 65 years and over on the total population, is about 0,30. It means, that on average, the rise in the share of the old by 1 percentage point, is followed by the rise of social expenditure level by 0,3% of the GDP. In case of unemployment rate, economic growth and the openness of economy, the sensitivity estimates are 0,3, -0,1 and -0,03. The sensitivities to the other three robust variables cannot be quantified due to a strong dependence on the exact model specification or a bias, caused by extreme values. The expenditure on pensions are relatively more dependent on population ageing, whereas other social expenditure are more sensitive to current position in economic cycle. The determinants in the old and the new EU member states are similar, with only one exception, as the expenditure levels in the new member states are less dependent on demographic structure. The model explains international differences and the changes during the period between 1990 and 2010.

This thesis studies the positions EU member states take towards the Western Balkan Enlargement. We examine what forms these positions. We examine what influence does the net contribution to the European budget have, net contributors are less likely to support further Enlargement. The levels of migration and the feeling that migration is a concerning issue do not have relevant influence on the popularity of the Enlargement. We found no relevant correlation between the feeling of European citizenship and the support for the EU membership for the Balkan countries. We can, however, see that the New Member States are much more likely to support the EU enlargement than are those who became EU members before 2004. We have chosen four cases for case studies. In the case study of France, we can observe the influence of the French president on the Enlargement process and the resulting reform of its method. In the German case, the position of the political elites is a strong support of the Enlargement, even if the public are not that enthusiastic and have a lot of influence, since the German parliament has to also approve beginning of any accession talks. In the case of Greece, we can see how Greece was able to use its position as an EU member and gain leverage in their dispute with Macedonia over the name of...

This research paper aims to explore the economic effects of Brexit on the European Union. The main research question is: What were the Brexit's effects on the E.U. economy? The study was conducted through a systematic literature review, focusing on existing literature to explain the various impact of Brexit on the E.U. The review materials were sourced from news articles, previous research studies, government statements and documents, European Union statements and documents, peer-reviewed articles, academic texts, and literature on the topical issues by experts. The main objective of the research study was to explain all economic effects the Brexit has on the E.U., bearing in mind that liberalism thrives on opening up the international border to free movement of goods and people. The Brexit reintroduced restrictions on the cross-border movement of goods and people between the U.K. and the E.U., impacting both regions economically. The study establishes that the Brexit had a wide range of economic effects on the E.U., which included inflations, relocation of businesses, loss of jobs, cheapening of labor, increased registration of new business companies in the E.U., the decline in the GDP, loss of market, and custom wall. The E.U. member states that traded much with the U.K. suffered most of the impact because of strong economic ties.

This thesis concentrates on the new member states of the European Union and their convergent processes. It is particularly focused on five Central European countries -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, which became the members of the European Union on 1st May 2004. The first chapter deals with the countries during their preparation process for the membership in the EU, the meeting the Copenhagen Criteria and their economic development. The second chapter is focused on the development of Central European countries in the EU. There is featured the development in the first years of their membership and during the economic crisis and the recovery. The third chapter concentrates on the processes of the real and nominal convergence in the Central Europe. Besides monitoring various stages of convergence over time there is documented the course of the convergence by the calculation of beta convergence in the European Union. At the end of the thesis there is outlined the relationship between the degree of nominal and real convergence in the concerned countries.

This thesis is focused on multi-criteria decision making. There were chosen new EU countries for the evaluation. Then there were found suitable criteria and set scales for them. The multi-criteria analysis was made with five methods and then there was defined the compromise order. The results were compared in 2007 - 2010 period, when all countries became members of the EU and there was impact of the economical crisis in these years.

This thesis analyses Treaty of Lisbon in order to reveal federalist principles contained in this new reformative treaty. This will enable to infer the impact on the sovereignty of the EU member states in case the Treaty of Lisbon would be ratified.

This thesis deals with the question of how far the Member States of EU have unified the system of taxation of royalties with respect to the Czech Republic. This issue is analyzed on the basis of comparison of Conventions between Czech Republic and other member states of EU. As key comparators were used the following approaches: grammatical interpretation of conventions, the definition of royalties and the range of taxation in the state of source. In order to examine the issue of taxation of royalties, attention is also given to the definition of royalties from the Czech legislation as well as from OECD (based on the Commentary to the Model Treaty) point of view. The thesis outlines also practical approaches to taxation of royalties in various model situations.

The Baltic Sea is a brackish body of water in the heart of Europe, and within it lives a small whale: the Baltic Sea harbor porpoise. However, this animal is becoming increasingly more endangered. Due to various man-made threats, less than 500 animals remain in the sea. This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive overview of this issue with a political approach through discussing how the state of this animal reflects on the European Union. Furthermore, it investigates the European Commission's role and takes a closer look at EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 to detect potential greenwashing. Through the case study of the harbor porpoise, the central conflict between the European Union and the conservationists aiming to save the animal gets illuminated from different perspectives. The analysis makes use of European integration theory as well as a deconstructive approach, through which the study is able to detect that the issue largely stems from the respective member states. Moreover, it finds that the approaches of the European Commission and the conservationist align at the core principles. With the help of an interview conducted with a field expert, these points can be emphasized. Reflecting on the findings it can be concluded that essential regulations are finally being put into place, but there is still a long way to go to save the Baltic Sea harbor porpoise.

Questa tesi affronta l'argomento dell'impatto delle attività dei gruppi criminali condotte all'interno degli Stati Membri dell'Unione europea. Negli ultimi anni l'importanza di questo argomento è stata ampiamente sottolineata soprattutto a livello europeo. La ricerca è stata possibile anche grazie alla partecipazione dell'autrice al progetto di ricerca sulla criminalità organizzata finanziato dalla Commissione europea (VI Programma Quadro) e dimostra come il mondo accademico può rispondere alla necessità di una conoscenza dell'impatto del crimine organizzato che sia comparabile a livello europeo. Si tratta di un primo tentativo di definire i criteri di una metodologia comune europea finalizzata alla misurazione dell'impatto di specifiche attività criminali, ai fini della selezione degli indicatori che rispettano tali criteri; in altre parole, questo lavoro intende offrire un primo studio comprensivo di tutti gli aspetti connessi allo sviluppo di una metodologia comune europea che misuri l'impatto delle attività criminali e di conseguenza creare la base per ulteriori ricerche sull'argomento. / This thesis addresses the topic of the harm caused by organised criminal activities carried out across the EU Member States. It is a topic whose importance has been widely remarked upon, in recent years, especially at EU level. This thesis - that benefits from the participation of the author in a Project on OC harm funded under the VI FP of the European Commission - shows how academics can respond to the need for a comparative knowledge on OC harm at EU level. It is a first attempt to define the criteria of a common EU methodology for measuring the harm caused by selected OC activities, and to identify indicators complying with these criteria, therefore putting forward a possible methodology. In other words, this thesis intends to provide a first comprehensive study that will bring together in a systematic way all the issues related to the development of a common EU methodology assessing the impact of OC activities and, therefore, create the basis for further research on the subject.