The article aims to present the three-level model of the EU, from the perspective of regional actors. The article analyzes the mechanisms of interaction among regional actors in reference to the level at which they are realized. Whereas the third level (regional level) is based on regional cooperation (cross-border, interregional and transnational) and regional partnership (realized by regional management), the state level and European level are based on the aggregation and articulation of regional interests. The third level follows the interest of a region. Mechanisms at the first and second levels follow the interest of a regional actor. Adapted from the source document.
This article deals with the relationship between Norway & the European Union. Norway is now the only Scandinavian country that is not a member of the EU. Nevertheless, it cooperates with the EU very closely in an increasing number of areas. Norway's membership in the European Economic Area has positive, as well as negative, consequences for the country. In addition, Norway is facing many challenges related to the enlargement of the EU. The divergence between the foreign policies of the US & the EU puts Norway in an uncomfortable position. On the basis of assessment of these factors, the authors conclude that it is possible that Norway would apply for membership in the EU after the forthcoming elections in September 2005. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.
The study examines results of the accession negotiations of the Czech Republic to the European Union (1998-2000). The main research questions are: how to measure success or failure in the accession negotiations? Are the conditions of the Czech Republic's entry well negotiated? Why are the results of the negotiations the way they are? The study demonstrates that the abilities of negotiators influence the results of the accession negotiations. This confirms the hypothesis that negotiators' abilities, their strategy, & tactics matters in this specific & highly asymmetric negotiations, although the character of the accession negotiations would presume that those should have only minor role in the accession talks. The analysis studies the influence of the negotiators' abilities in the good results in the area of the transitional periods as well as in the relatively less successful outcomes in the financial deal. Although a direct correlation between the effective strategy/tactics & successful results as well as between the incompetent or missing strategy/tactics & unsuccessful outcomes was not found, the study proves the impact of the individual as well as collective strategy/tactics of the candidates. The Czech Republic individually, as well as in the cooperation with other candidates, achieved not only expected minor concessions but was also able to change the original position of the EU & even the EU methodology. The strategy of the Czech foreign policy towards the bilateral disputes with the member states (nuclear power Temein, Benes decrees) could influence the low sum of the future Czech income for the years 2004-2006 from the EU budget, although the resultant amount was mainly determined by the objective reasons in the distribution of the finances among the candidates. Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.
Every country in the world is currently trying to reduce opportunities for corruption in the country. Fighting corruption is very challenging and difficult. The corruption occurs primarily in the public sector, where the object of interest is funding from public sources. Corruption has a negative impact primarily on the economy of the state in terms of their current, but also potential investors and strategic partners in the area of production. Second, it can not ignore the negative impact on the society, respectively citizens of the state affected by corruption. The paper aims to quantify the interdependence between the Corruption perception index and selected indicators of economic health in selected countries of the European Union. In terms of proven relationship between defined variables can then infer the interdependence of achieved Corruption perception index value in selected EU countries and to determine whether are these states in the problem unified or differentiated.
The paper analyses the development of the EU energy policy since the beginning of the European integration and argues that the eastern enlargement and two gas crises in 2006 and 2009 have crucially impacted its evolution. Originally, the ES/EU dealt primarily with the formation and liberalisation of internal energy market, however after 2004 the focus has shifted towards issues of energy security and external energy relations in general. The paper uses the spillover concept to analyse the development of the EU energy policy. It argues that the development of internal energy market was caused by a spillover from internal market as such, while the progress in the area of energy policy after the eastern enlargement was an outcome of efforts to achieve energy security; efforts that resulted in further spillover effects in areas such as diversification, external energy relations or efficiency. The paper thus claims that common European energy policy in its internal and external dimensions started to evolve gradually after the Eastern enlargement.
The main goal of the article is to analyze the basic problems regarding the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The negotiations so far have been controversial, and discussions about them have been inconclusive. In the first section of the article, the negotiations are set within the context of global politics and are especially examined in the context of new regionalism/inter-regionalism and international trade relations to clarify the motives behind the EPAs. Then the negotiation parties are introduced and a brief overview of the ACP economies follows, since they all have a considerable impact on the EPA discussions. Next, an analysis of possible positive and negative impacts of the EPAs on the development of ACP countries follows. Adapted from the source document.
Both in the Czech and European contexts, the Council of the EU is a relatively frequent subject of interest in political science research. A substantial amount of work (both in the tradition of qualitative and quantitative research) focuses especially on the process of coalition building and the impact and functioning of the different levels of the Council. This theoretical discussion analyzes the possibilities which both the qualitative and quantitative approaches offer concerning research dealing with the coalition behavior of one concrete EU member state. In doing so, it takes into account various specifics which characterize the Council of the EU and which substantially influence the behavior of its member states. The paper concludes that the qualitative approach (while being to a substantial degree complementary to the quantitative tradition) offers better tools for an analysis focusing on the coalition behavior of one member state than its quantitative counterpart. One of the reasons lies in the nature of our research which deals with the process of promoting the interests of the Czech Republic in the EU Council, with a special emphasis on coalition building and searching for compromises. ; Both in the Czech and European contexts, the Council of the EU is a relatively frequent subject of interest in political science research. A substantial amount of work (both in the tradition of qualitative and quantitative research) focuses especially on the process of coalition building and the impact and functioning of the different levels of the Council. This theoretical discussion analyzes the possibilities which both the qualitative and quantitative approaches offer concerning research dealing with the coalition behavior of one concrete EU member state. In doing so, it takes into account various specifics which characterize the Council of the EU and which substantially influence the behavior of its member states. The paper concludes that the qualitative approach (while being to a substantial degree complementary to ...
The paper examines the sources of economic growth in the ten new member states of the European Union (EU-10) & in previous member states (EU-15) as a whole. Special attention is devoted to the Czech republic, both from macroeconomic point of view & from the view of nine industries. For the analyses is used growth accounting method, where factors of production are labor, capital & total factor productivity. With the exception of the Czech Republic & EU-15 the reconstruction of capital stock was needed. We have used perpetual inventory method. The analyses has shown, that the main factor of economic growth in EU-10 was total factor productivity, mainly in the Baltic states. In the Czech Republic the main driving force of macroeconomic total factor productivity was manufacturing industry. The fast growing total factor productivity in EU-10 was the main factor of convergence to EU-15. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.
The paper provides an exploratory analysis of regional dynamics among 264 NUTS2 EU-27 regions over the period 1992-2006. Seven different regional indicators are analyzed including wages, household expenditures, retail sales, investments, productivity, GDP, & GDP adjusted for international purchasing power differences. Several aspects of regional dynamics are studied such as convergence, polarization, role of international component, overall mobility, & individual mobility of Czech regions. Different methods are employed including some traditional techniques such as Gini coefficient, Theil decomposition, or kernel density estimates but also more innovative measures based on the pair-wise comparisons of regions. The results suggest strong regional convergence in relative ratios hand in hand with increasing absolute gaps among European regions. The analysis also indicates a significant bipolarity in the investigated distributions & a major role of international component in the process of European regional development. From the Czech regions, only Praha & Stredni Cechy recorded some upward mobility in the European regional rank distributions, while the relative positions of all other units deteriorated. Adapted from the source document.
The Stability & Growth Pact has become a primary fiscal policy framework in all European countries since 1997. Together with Maastricht fiscal criteria it determines the fiscal discipline of integration process. The aim of this study is to evaluate ex-post effectiveness of the fiscal rules from the view of a primary structural balance development during 1991-2007. A method taken for the evaluation was a panel-corrected standard errors regression with fixed effects applied on the former euro zone countries (EA12), "old" EU members (EU15) & finally on the EU25. The results of the econometric estimation indicate that all considered rules were effective even though with different impacts. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that electoral cycle, among others, has strong impact on the primary structural component of public balance. However against theoretical assumptions, there is not a conclusive statistical significance of the government behavior on the current state in the business cycle. Adapted from the source document.
The article aims to describe & analyze the phenomenon of the EU regional policy in the Czech Republic. For the purpose of the article, the regional policy of the EU is described as a relation between the independent Czech regional policy bound by Czech laws & regional support of the EU. The article describes the actual preparation (legislative, institutional) of the Czech Republic for the effective utilization of regional support in the context of EU enlargement. The article also analyzes possible problems & conflict areas in the implementation structure of Joint regional operational program. 14 References. Adapted from the source document.
The paper deals with the monetary policy of the European Central Bank & its effects on economic development of the Czech economy & other new members of EU from the perspective of Post-Keynesian monetary economics. In the first part the basic principles of contemporary Post-Keynesian monetary theory of relative endogeneity of money are shortly presented. The second part concentrates on the Post-Keynesian criticism of the institutional arrangement of the ECB & its monetary policy. The closing part treats issues concerning potential effects of the policy of the ECB in the given institutional framework on economic development of the Czech economy & economies of other less developed members of EU after joining the Eurozone. Possible adverse effects on the process of real convergence are discussed & alternative policies eliminating this danger are presented. Adapted from the source document.
