Suchergebnisse

The book The Energy Sector and Energy Policy of the Czech Republic is divided into eight chapters. The first describes the key actors and the legislative framework of the energy sector of the Czech Republic, including an analysis of the Government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of the Environment, and other legislative and regulatory bodies and political parties. The second chapter introduces the rich and complicated history of the development of the Czech national energy sector. The following chapters familiarize the reader with the coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, renewables industries, and electricity and heat. The book is recommended to scholars and researchers, as well as experts in the relevant fields of study, but will also serve as a guide for those outside academia who work with the topic daily, such as in public administration.

The EU has been gradually increasing its emphasis on a common approach to energy security among its members in the last couple of years, and these member states have had to take this tendency into account when developing their own approach to energy policy. Additionally, both EU and its members have been forced to react to several challenges regarding energy security. Reactions and tendencies within energy policies can be assessed on the basis of theoretical approaches that can not only clarify reasons for implementing specific tools and procedures, but also can help to anticipate future development. This article is focused on the energy policy of the Czech Republic and the European Union from the perspectives of strategic as well as market-oriented approaches, which are the two dominant theoretical approaches in this field of study. The aim is to identify how these approaches are reflected in policy documents on both levels during the selected period of time (2004–2012) and what it means in terms of energy policy coordination within the EU.

This article addresses the future of coal in the European coal heartland, i.e. in the area of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, which together account for nearly 57% of coal consumption and 87% of coal-mining jobs in the EU. It approaches the problem within the interpretative tradition of social research and explores the coverage of the future of coal in major newspapers and political magazines in the three countries. The results show that despite similar material conditions, the issue is presented in a fundamentally different manner as the media tend follow the dominant energy policy paradigm in their countries: in Germany, they facilitate the phase-out policies; in Poland, they act as an inhibiting factor; while in the Czech Republic, their coverage echoes the political uncertainty around lignite mining in the northwest part of the country. The results also suggest that the media act mainly as a platform for the countries' decision makers and energy policy stakeholders to voice their perspectives. The prevalent media coverage thus simultaneously enable and constrain policy options by promoting dominant discourses and preventing alternative views from surfacing.

The article analyses how the standpoints of political parties on energy related issues are formed. The effect of the process of forming these standpoints on energy policy in general in the Czech Republic, the divergence among ideologies (coming out not only from the election programs), and other factors, as well as the parties' ideological continuity in time are particularly emphasized. The analysis comes to the conclusion that energy related issues are important for each political party but not crucial. In addition, it is concluded that parties are internally consistent, their standpoints are based on ideology, and they are all rather constructive in policy formulation. An interesting conclusion is also the fact that energy policy in the Czech Republic is generally highly personalized, thus strongly influenced by particular individuals.

The Visegrad Group ranks among the most visible examples of regional cooperation in Europe. Within the Group's agenda, cooperation on energy policy appears to be especially important and it is also a field in which the Platform is considered to perform especially well. This article provides an account of what 'energy cooperation' is according to the Platform itself. Specifically, it seeks to find out which energy policy issues are reflected by the Platform, how their reflection has evolved over time, and how they are framed (made sense of). To find out, all the official documents and communications issued by the V4 between 2000 and 2018, totalling approximately 660,000 words of text, were thoroughly examined using three separate analytical approaches. The results show that energy indeed features prominently in the V4 agenda with a focus on energy security – tacitly understood as security of (natural gas) supply – and pursuing common interests within the EU. The results also indicate that the energy cooperation is largely reactive, with the V4 much more likely to find common positions and agree on joint actions when facing external pressures. Especially since 2015, the cooperation has been chiefly defined by common resistance to the ambitious climate policies pursued by the EU. The article concludes by suggesting that Visegrad energy cooperation is likely overrated and that there is little evidence in the documents of the Platform that this agenda represents an 'especially successful' field of cooperation.