The aim of this Master thesis was to find out whether the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union was able to exert influence in EU's external relations after the Lisbon Treaty has entered into force. Thesis was looking on two post-Lisbon Council Presidencies- Hungarian Council Presidency and the Polish Council Presidency and their influence in Eastern Partnership-the flagship initiative of both of these presidencies. Through the identification of the informal roles of the rotating presidency-agenda setter role and broker's role, the influence on the development of Eastern Partnership of both Council Presidencies was determined. The other factors such as the reputation of the presiding country, stable domestic political situation, ability to deal with unexpected developments have been considered as important pre-requisites for the Council Presidency to be able to exert influence through its informal roles.

This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of EU member states' power, the EU's capability to act (efficiency), and the proportionality of the voting system in the Council of Ministers from the treaties of Rome in 1958 till the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 and beyond, using a wide range of alternative power indices. Moreover, it considers explicitly the relevance of additional legal provisions (such as the 'Luxembourg Compromise', the 'Demographic Clause', and the 'Ioannina Compromise') and the implications of novel, more recently introduced voting rules such as reverse qualified majority voting. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Each presidency presents its program of priorities before the beginning. In connection with the formulation of the priorities we can follow three different lines influencing the whole process: affairs within EU, affairs out of EU and last but not least the national priorities of individual member states. The target of this thesis is to present a general overview of EU presidencies in the period 2000-2008 and to demonstrate, that formulated priorities do not appear in the agendas of presidencies randomly, but reflect certain continuity in development of the integration process.

The thesis deals with preparation, process, results and evaluation of the first Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The thesis analyses the activities which are realized within the preparation and organization of the EU Council Presidency, namely both at the general level and also in the concrete case of the Czech presidency, with the priority focus on logistic and promotional aspects. The subject matter of the thesis is also an evaluation of the presidency, which presents the important part of its organizational support. The principal aim of the thesis is to stress the cardinal importance of the preparation and organization for the successful execution of the presidency.

The Lisbon Treaty has made significant changes to the institutional functioning of the whole system of the European Union. Most notably, it has constituted a non-rotating long-term Presidency for the European Council and Foreign Affairs Council. Before the Lisbon Treaty, the Member State of the European Union presided over all Council constellations, including the European Council, for a six-month term. These changes certainly contributed to the solution of some issues (for instance continuity issues), on the other hand these changes affected in some ways the performance of the rotating Presidency. I focus on these changes to the institutional form of the Presidency and on the effects these changes had on the Presidency's performance in its functions, namely the negotiation and external representation. I draw on the experience of the first two post-Lisbon Presidencies, Spanish and Belgian one. My aim is to examine the changing role of the Presidency in these functions. I explore the role of the Presidency before and during negotiations of the founding Treaties of the European Union and its role after the reforms introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. Mainly, I focus on examining the relationship between the rotating Presidency and newly-established permanent Presidency of the European Council and High...

The diploma thesis deals with the presidency of the Czech Republic in the European Union which was in progress during the first half of 2009. Two main goals of the thesis were, first, to describe the presidency in context of congress tourism and, second, to analyze the impacts of the presidency on tourism in the Czech Republic. In the thesis there is described the mechanism of the organization of the presidency in detail, i.e. how were organized the conferences and congresses of the EU taking place in the Czech Republic during the presidency. Then, there is an analysis of both short-run and long-run impacts of the presidency on tourism and congress tourism in the Czech Republic. The thesis is theoretically based on characteristics of tourism, congress tourism, Council of the EU and the presidency in the Council.

The main goal of diploma thesis "European Waltz under the Austrian Baton? - Analysis of the Austrian EU-Presidency in the Years 1998 and 2006" is an evaluation of two Austrian presidencies in the European Union in the years 1998 and 2006. In connection with the Austrian foreign policy and its position in Central Europe, stigmatized by political sanctions from the side of the "EU-14" in 2000, its delayed access into the European integration structures in 1995 and with its neutrality status, it will be interesting to find out how Austria managed to rule the European Union. Austria held the EU-presidency for the first time as an unexperienced newcomer after only three and half years of membership in the EU. Eight years later, Vienna governed the EU for the second time, but this time as a skilled member after a decade of its active membership in the European Union. In spite of the difference of the two distinct times, the author will attempt to compare both presidencies. Will Vienna achieve as the chief of the EU the goals stated by its working program for the presidency and will it be able to face the greatest challenge of its European policy? As often happens with presidencies, the agenda could be heavily influenced by unexpected events that cannot be controlled. In order to judge the quality of the...

Title: Priorities of EU sport policy and funding for sports Objectives: The main objective is to describe the existing methods and the resulting possibilities for the sport funding EU-level scheme. This will result in presenting a comprehensive and clear picture of all EU funding mechanisms that could be beneficial for sports. The thesis also aims to describe the issue in the context of the EU sport policy priorities development and give an overview of the Council and Commission sport-related policy activities. Methods: In this thesis, a method of analysis of legislative and non- legislative texts was used. Other documents examined were further relevant studies, publications and strategic texts. A method of synthesis was also used when the partial information gathered during the relevant meetings of Council formations, conferences and seminars was formed into a comprehensive text. Results: The result is a text that captures the development of EU sport policy priorities and offers specific recommendations for area of sports that derive from the acquired information and from analysis of EU funding schemes. Keywords: sports, funding, EU, Preparatory actions in the field of sport, sport policy, Lisbon Treaty, Erasmus+, Council, European Union, European Parliament

The diploma thesis "Komparace postojů Irska a Velké Británie u vybraných aspektů Evropské integrace" deals with attitudes of Great Britain and Ireland to the politics of the European Union. Based on the available literature (using the descriptive and analytical method), the thesis proves how divergent or vice versa accordance are particular policies and approaches of these two states, whose past is completely different and has fundamental influence on contemporary access of these members to the European Union. In the history of Great Britain's and the European Union's relation it is always possible to find a certain fact that distinguished Britain from other partners in the European Union. It is then also different from the neighbouring Ireland. The diploma thesis analyses first of all the financial framework of the European Union, its regional and foreign policy. It is divided into five chapters - besides already mentioned regional, economic and foreign policy, the diploma thesis delas with the access of Ireland and Great Britain to European referendums, accentuated is first of all the referendum on the Treaty of Nice and the contemporary debate on the rejected Treaty of Lisbon. Finally are analysed last two presidencies of Ireland and Great Britain in years 2004 and 2005. The purpose of the diploma thesis...