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This paper focuses on sustainable public procurement (SPP) and its role in public procurement of the members of the Visegrad Group (Hungarian, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic). Sustainable public procurement is a current trend in public purchasing around the world. The European Union's sustainable development policy, which respects the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, seeks to influence the public procurement policies of the members of the European Union. Every country, including the Visegard Group countries is trying to implement sustainable development criteria in its procurement process and to change legislation. The aim of this paper is to compare the implementation of public procurement in the Czech Republic with other members of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary) and analyse how the public procurement (tenders) respects the criteria of sustainable public procurement in the case of the selected public procurements (tenders) in rail transport. We analyse the public procurement process and investigate the possibility/appropriateness of using social responsibility criteria in the individual phases of the procurement process (award criteria). The results show that there are different methods of implementing SPP in the V4 countries. There are significant differences between the regions. Based on the results of our research and analysis of the selected tenders, we concluded that the principle of social responsibility needs to be reflected in all steps, i.e. in the formulation of the subject of the public contract, the preparation of the contractual terms and the selection of evaluation criteria in their qualitative form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates, whether the adoption of ethical codes in the Czech Republic and in Ukraine mainly aim at implementation of EU ethical framework for public administration or should be viewed as a part of national anti-corruption policy. To that end, the article will analyse, whether the ethical codes for public administration in the Czech Republic and Ukraine reflect core principles of EU ethical framework for public administration, or rather contain specific provisions aimed at eliminating corruption. The practical effects of relevant provisions, their enforcement and contribution to elimination of corruption will also be analysed. Besides analysis and comparison of the situation in the Czech Republic and Ukraine, the article aims to identify common experiences and patterns to provide generalization useful for understanding the effect of ethical codes on elimination of corruption and national implementation of European core ethical principles for public administration in wider context of Central and Eastern European post-communist countries, which are still suffering from quite significant rates of corruption and examples of maladministration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the political aspect of the recognition of the Armenian genocide has mostly focused on the realpolitik and its impact in terms of legislation and relations between political actors. A new dimension in research regarding the Armenian genocide occurred by presenting legal performativity within memory laws in France and Germany. Here, I build on the understanding that performative analysis may help us uncover the deeper circumstances of the recognition of the Armenian genocide, going beyond the classical dichotomy—recognition/nonrecognition. The case of the Czech Republic revealed the problem in the division of executive power regarding foreign policy between the government and the president. Furthermore, the analysis revealed the parliamentary instruments legitimizing the recognition of the Armenian genocide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]