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The roles played by Council presidencies are a pertinent area to study, yet it has been insufficiently explored. The Czech Republic has recently experienced its second presidency in the Council which ended in December 2022. It has followed the French presidency, the first state of the same trio. This gives us a unique occasion to study the prioritization of chairman's roles by comparing the behaviour of these two members of one trio presidency presidencies at all levels of the Council for Environment. The legislative files in environmental area were intensively negotiated during the French and Czech presidencies, especially the "Fit for 55" package. Based on the theories on specific activities connected to each role of presidency (political leader, mediator, manager and representant), we analyse these roles and the way by which the consecutive French and Czech presidencies have played them in environmental field. We compare the role prioritization of these chairmen based on the weight attached to individual roles (except for the representant role) by the presidencies. A complementary part of the thesis investigates diverse factors derived from the rationalist approach (the power of the country, the approach to environmental policy, French presidential elections) and sociological approach...

in English The waves of migration from Syria in 2015 and from Ukraine in 2022 significantly affected the number of people who applied for asylum or temporary protection in the EU. In this work, these migration waves are compared through a pre-selected framework of the so- called "neoclassical theory" which operates on the basis of rational decision-making about migration as an "economic" calculation of risks, advantages and disadvantages (so-called "push" and "pull" factors and "intervening obstacles"). Through comparison, the work tries to answer the questions of the similarity of the two migration waves and, through their analysis, at the same time, the question of whether these waves influenced the Migration and Asylum Policy of the EU as such. Despite certain similarities in the political aspects of the comparison, the similarity of the two waves was not confirmed, however, a shift in the creation of the EU migration policy framework after the migration wave in 2015 was also confirmed.

This diploma thesis examines the theoretical concept of Europeanization in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The ambition of this thesis is to compare the relative levels of Europeanisation in the field of justice and home affairs in Moldova and Ukraine and then place it in the context of the Russian aggression. The aim of this thesis is to determine whether both countries were sufficiently Europeanised prior to receiving candidate status, or whether this EU move was solely a reaction to Russian aggression. Europeanisation theory was chosen because it examines a process that is crucial for EU accession. In this case, it was defined as the degree of approximation of national legislations to the EU acquis in the field of justice and home affairs. The integration process is a natural response of states to external threats, but also an opportunity for economic integration and shared prosperity. This thesis therefore examines the motivations, but also the obstacles, that shape the bilateral relations between the EU and the countries aspiring to EU membership. Last but not least, it places the results of the analytical part of the thesis in a broader context and subjects them to a critical discussion in order to determine whether the granting of candidate status to...

This diploma thesis deals with the topic, whether European union is a world power or not at all. The aim of this diploma thesis was to find out if European union is a world power in hard power or soft power, alternatively what is stopping EU from becoming world power in those phenomenas. Futhermore thesis is working with the hypothesis, that EU is world power and in its foreign policy uses primarily soft power tools. Within qualitative research was used method of comparative analysis. EU was compared with United states, China and Russia. In the summary are results of observation from which emerged, that EU is world power mainly in soft power. Even through the fact, that according to realism as a theory of international relantions it possess all capabilities needed to be a world power in hard power. The main obstacle to become a world power in the field of hard power is mainly the lack of political will or decades long underfundation of member states armies.

This bachelor's thesis is dedicated to the topic of agenda-setting of the European Commission. The studied agenda is the women's participation in the labour market. The primary purpose of this bachelor's thesis is to make clear what are the tools of the European Commission used for agenda-setting and what is the current situation regarding women's participation in the labour market. Both topics are connected in the research part of this thesis which examines how the European Commission set the agenda in the field of women's participation in the labour market and how was this topic framed. This thesis uses theoretical assumptions implied from the new institutionalism and there are two hypotheses introduced in this thesis. The first one stems from the racional institutionalism, the second one originates in sociologist institutionalism. This bachelor's thesis contributes to debates on the status and agenda-setting capabilities of the European Commission. The thesis also describes the issues connected to women's labour market participation in the EU and how these issues are addressed by the European Commission. The outcomes of this thesis revealed that the European Commission used both normative and economic frames for setting the agenda of women's participation in the labour market.

Although most countries of the Western Balkans are in various stages of the EU accession, their progress is slow compared to that of the Central and Eastern European countries that have joined so far. Many indicators and authors point to the deteriorating state of democratic institutions in Montenegro and Serbia - the frontrunner candidate countries in the Western Balkans. This raises questions about the functionality of applying conditionality on these countries. The European Commission regularly evaluates the accession countries' advancement in Progress Reports. The aim of this work was to assess how the Commission evaluates the progress of Montenegro and Serbia in Chapters 23 and 24, which are closely linked to the issue of democratic institutions and the whole principle of conditionality. Using quantitative content analysis, individual pieces of information on the interannual progress of these countries in 2012- 2020 were coded and converted into corresponding positive (indicating improvement) and negative (indicating regression) values. Their averaging then resulted in a group of indexes for individual aspects described in the relevant Chapters as well as indexes for the Chapters as a whole. At the same time, a special Democratic Institutions Reform Index (DIRI) was calculated. The relevant...

This thesis is focused on the analysis of the Russian strategic narratives through the prism of two Russian energy projects - Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream. News from two Russian mass media (Channel One and RIA Novosti) is the object of analysis. With the help of this work, it can be answered what strategic narratives Russia was using from 2015 to 2021 and how Russia perceive itself internally. Moreover, this work can demonstrate how Russia sees its relationship with the EU as the end customer of Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream.

This diploma thesis deals with the trade policy of Spain in relation to other countries during the reign of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. It analyzes the changes in the position of strategic partners for Spain between 1936-1975, i.e., during the Franco era. The main variable in this process should be the change of the international political scene from the turbulent 1930s, through the Second World War, to the post-war period, i.e., the Cold War and the division of the world into "East" and "West" and the period of decolonization. Although General Franco's government could be described as totalitarian or clerical-fascist and suppressing any liberal- democratic tendencies on the domestic scene, especially in international politics, Franco was able to move very deftly and get the most out of most political negotiations with foreign partners for Spain. Therefore, even the Spaniards themselves are very contradictory in their assessment of the period of his reign. In analyzing Spain's developments on the international stage, many of the variables that have influenced Spain's direction, both directly and indirectly, must be taken into account. Among these variables we can include, for example, various contracts, agreements, but also sanctions or embargoes.

This thesis deals with the deepening of relations between the Czech Republic and its priority countries (for the period 2006-2010) within the framework of Czech bilateral development cooperation. The main research question of the thesis is the influence of development cooperation on the expansion of cooperation between the Czech Republic and its priority countries. In the theoretical part of the thesis, the main assumptions concerning the deepening of cooperation are presented. The main theoretical framework is the spillover theory. The main hypotheses of this theory are presented and applied to the selected case. The observed areas in which cooperation is expected to increase are the political sphere, the economic sphere, culture sphere and the military sphere. For every sphere was chosen measurable indicator. Paired countries with comparable conditions were selected as priority countries. The conditions on the basis of which the countries are paired are comparable history, GDP per capita, population size and trade with the Czech Republic before the period under review. The method used to answer the research question is regression analysis. In this case, the dependent variable is the growth of the selected indicators for the selected regions. The independent variable is development cooperation,...

This diploma thesis deals with the development of human capital in China, India, and South Africa. It focuses on the historical development and the main milestones in the development of education systems in individual countries and subsequently their current state. The aim is to compare individual countries in terms of human capital development and to figure out why South Africa is ranked worse than the other two countries in the World Bank's Human Capital Index, even though it is one of the upper middle-income countries along with China and India is a country with a lower middle income and yet it is ranked higher in this ranking. The work examines the history of the development of education systems in individual countries and describes their significant milestones that have influenced education to such an extent that the country is still struggling with the consequences. Firstly, this thesis describes the current state of education systems and gathers important characteristics and major problems. These problems stem mainly from historical developments, which have caused China to reform its education in order to get rid of the consequences of Soviet influence. India has been particularly influenced by British influence, which has changed its traditional education and is currently struggling with...