In the last thirty years, European local authorities have played a pro-active role in the realm of sustainable development, taking part in several European initiatives and projects and setting up municipal networks. The latter, which connect cities scattered across Member States, may focus on specific environmental issues, such as sustainable mobility or energy, or include sustainable development in a wide range of policy priorities. These socio-ecological urban networks (hereafter SEUNs) have attracted growing academic attention. However, the bulk of the literature is located within Geography and Urban Studies, and it is more focused on the structure of the networks, the process of decision-making, and the policy outcomes than on the drivers of cities’ membership of SEUNs. Within this debate, the contribution of Political Science has been scant, and the political and economic drivers of cities’ engagement in European socio-ecological municipal networks have been overlooked. Understanding why local governments decide to participate in these networks is important for two main reasons: firstly, it contributes to shedding light on how contemporary local political elites govern cities within the European context; secondly, it allows us to understand why European cooperation for sustainable development has become a dominant discourse in urban politics. Conversely, this thesis adopts an urban approach to isolate the urban-level economic, political and institutional factors that impact on local authorities’ participations in European socio-ecological urban networks. Using a nested research design that combines a quantitative and qualitative analysis, the thesis seeks to shed light on the factors and motivations underlying the choice of cities to participate in European networks for sustainability. The results show that cities’ European commitment to sustainable development is part of a broad strategy to achieve urban regeneration. Therefore, participation in SEUNs is not necessarily motivated by environmental preoccupations but is functional to achieve economic and political objectives.

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M.A. / Since the end of the Cold War era, peace and security have been the first priority of the African states. Africa has been afflicted by armed conflicts, wars and genocide since the African states gained their independence in 1960s. Presently, there are still some countries that are involved in conflicts including Sudan and Somalia. Armed conflicts undermine Africa's social and economic developments. Furthermore, this situation threatens African political stability in particular, peace and security. The international community is actively engaged in promoting peace, security and stability in Africa. So far, the United Nations (UN) has conducted eighteen peacekeeping operations and it still leads eight peacekeeping operations in Africa. It was found that peacekeeping operations are crucial to sustain peace and stability on the continent. The focus and aim of this study is to investigate cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) with regard to peacemaking and peacekeeping in Africa. It was found that cooperation between the EU and AU has increased since the first EU-Africa Summit in Cairo in 2000. Both the EU and the AU have recently strengthened their relationship in a wide range of activities including human rights and governance, economic growth as well as peace and security. Importantly, the second EU-Africa Summit was held in Lisbon, in December 2007. At this, the EU highlighted the importance of a comprehensive, robust and long-term framework for its relations with the AU. The EU and Africa are connected by strong historical, trade and colonial links and the EU has a deep interest in a prosperous and stabilised Africa. Meanwhile, armed conflicts not only paralyse the African continent's, but also the European states' interests. Thus, the EU has reinforced its relationship with the AU in the fields of peace and security.

This thesis proposes a realist analysis of the contemporary concept of popular sovereignty in its ability to make sense of the EU's legitimacy. Drawing upon Bernard Williams' political thought, a conception of legitimacy should make sense of hierarchical rule as a desirable civic order from within its own historical circumstances at the normative level. In addition, it should offer realistic guidance to political agents, meaning that its political fictions must therefore acquire a certain degree of practical resonance in order to act as heuristic tools. The modern concept of popular sovereignty sets appropriate criteria of legitimacy based upon the bonds created between citizens. Through a genealogical inquiry, I reconstruct conceptions of popular sovereignty which underpin defences of the EU's output, democratic, and identitarian legitimacy from canonical arguments. These justifications of the state consider the people as beneficiaries of security and economic prosperity, as a self-governing demos, and as a cultural nation, respectively. I propose a realist vindication of this multi-faceted conception of popular sovereignty at the normative level, because these different conceptions complement one another in making sense of the sovereign state's legitimacy. The thesis then discusses how the political fictions of the people could simultaneously make sense within the European polity. In short, the citizens of Europe's polities have become part of the normative systems which create judicial-economic, civic-democratic, and socio-cultural relationships within the territorial borders of the European states. In addition, the centralisation of decision-making power and implementation resources has given plausibility to the political fiction of sovereignty. European integration has, however, resulted in a reconfiguration of these normative systems and restructuring of power into a two-tier political order. In this novel context, a realist vindication of the contemporary conception of popular sovereignty is no longer possible. The thesis concludes by suggesting that a demoicratic reconceptualisation of popular sovereignty offers a constructive way to make sense of the EU's legitimacy.

The thesis deals with Luxembourg and its position in the European Union. It contains description of the economic characteristics and development of basic macroeconomic indicators of the country in the last decade. The thesis also evaluates the status of Luxembourg in the entire EU-27 based on a comparison of basic macroeconomic indicators. Finally, it sums up history of the European Communities in Luxembourg and subsequently in the European Union. Reader can find out information about last Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union and country's attitude to highly debated issues in the EU.

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the development of Finnish economy in past few years especially in context of global financial and economic crisis. This work also examines the causes of remarkable uptorn in Finland's economic performance since 1990 and the longevity of such state. Attention is also paid to current main characteristics of Finnish economy in world context such as nordic social model, education system and research, development and innovations.

The aim of this thesis is analysis of the most important aspects that affect the German economy and its role in the European Union.

The thesis deals with the contemporary problem of Somali maritime hijackings from the European Union perspective. First, it presents the problem per se while focusing on the framework in which the piracy issue is being solved. Second, it analyses the role of the post-Lisbon European Union in international crisis management. Taking EU's first naval military mission EU NAVFOR Somalia "Atalanta" as a case study, the paper essentially aims at shedding some light on the current state of the European Union's recognition as a major actor in international politics. Based on the Somali piracy case study, the text contributes to the theoretical debate about EU actorness.

The objective of this diploma thesis is to analyse all factors influencing the international trade in bananas. First chapter describes in general banana sector in national economies including ecological, social and political consequences related to the banana production. Second chapter is about the development of the trade from a macroeconomic point of view and concentrates also on the trade rules of the European Union as the main import region of the world. Third chapter is oriented on a business perspective of the trade and focuses on the marketing chain and position of the most important companies in this domain. One part of the chapter concentrates on the business on the European market. Final chapter summarizes all critical factors of the trade and shows a possible future functioning of the marketing chain with regard to actual tendencies in the world economy.

The ageing of population is the most marked demographic process, which is in progress in the most developed countries around the world (and in European Union too) and it will accompany us all of the 21st century. It is spoken negative about them. But it is a positive phenomenon, because it is consequence of economic and social development and therefore an indicator of the level of advancement of the country. The goal of this thesis is to give a comprehensive view of ageing of population issues, to describe demographic development of European Union, it's changes and trends and to find out causes of difference between individual countries. Thesis should analyse economic and societal impact of these changes, offer solution to negative effects and suggest measures, which should the countries take, too. Attention will be paid to Czech Republic too, because it is one of the countries, where will be the situation very serious.