Contemporary Europe, 2015 (vol. 2015), issue 1

Standardní unijní instituce? Proměny vnitřního fungování Evropské rady na pozadí finanční krize

Standard Institution of the European Union? Changes to the European Council's Working Methods During the Financial Crisis

Robert Zbíral

Současná Evropa 2015, 2015(1):4-18  

Since its founding in 1974, European Council has become one of the most influential actors in the EU. One of the Lisbon Treaty's objectives was to stabilize the position of the European Council and make it a standard component of the institutional framework. Yet the plan of serene adaptation was disrupted by the outburst of financial and economic crisis in the Eurozone (EU). Under external pressure, European Council was suddenly forced to operate as a forum for averting the incoming catastrophe and for preventing recurrence of the problems. Our article analyses how the crisis affected the internal operations of the institution. It tests the hypothesis...

Využitelnost konceptu federalismu při studiu víceúrovňových politických systémů

Federalism Applied to Multi-level Political Systems

Eva Štefková

Současná Evropa 2015, 2015(1):19-38  

The aim of the article "Federalism applied to multi-level political systems" is to identify the essence of federalist thinking shared within the following research fields: law, political science, international relations, European studies. These theoretical concepts are presented in the first part of the text; the similarities and differences are emphasized. Summarizing the repeating characteristics and analyzing the causal relation between the changes of sovereignty and transformation of federalism follow. Analyzing the outputs enables us to describe basic model of federalism. Multi-level governance theory is compared with federalism and the applicability...

Ovlivňují kulturní hodnoty přístup ke kvótám?

Do Cultural Values Drive Quotas?

Zuzana Křečková

Současná Evropa 2015, 2015(1):39-51  

Women workforce potential is not used up to its full potential. Women outnumber men in the tertiary education. However, their presence at top decision making positions of the corporate boards is still very small if ever. Countries take different approaches in terms of institutional support and setting quotas to increase female presence at top decision making bodies of the corporations.Country differences by their cultural dimensions values are reflected in their national view on gender balanced roles in the society with respect to top positions in the decision making. However, research outcome shows that cultural dimension of Hofstede's masculinity...

Soft law a diskurz rodovo podmieneného násilia v agende Európskej únie - prípad výskumu násilia na ženách pod hlavičkou FRA

Soft Law And the Discourse of Gender-Based Violence in the European Union Agenda - the Case of FRA's Violence Against Women Survey

Veronika Valkovičová

Současná Evropa 2015, 2015(1):52-66  

Since the Treaties of Rome, European gender equality policy has been evolving towards a nondistributive character of justice. A particular example of this is the growing interest in violence against women, or the gender-based violence, which the European Commission lists among the core issues to be tackled in reaching equality throughout the Union. The European gender equality policy, which had been also evolving in the form of soft law, brings new discoursive frameworks for gender-based violence. This contribution deals with the discoursive limits which help to conceptualize violence against women and create representations of victims of violence...

Charakter členství jako determinant odlišného výkonu? Explorační analýza evropských výborů českého parlamentu

The Character of Membership as a Determinant of Different Performance? An Exploratory Analysis of European Affairs Committees of the Czech Parliament

Martin Kuta, Jan Němec

Současná Evropa 2015, 2015(1):67-84  

The paper enters the debate connected with the broad issue of alleged democratic deficit of the European integration. The authors follow one branch of this debate, i.e. the democratization through parliamentarization of the European Union. They develop David Kral's analysis of the functioning of EU affairs oversight in both chambers of the Czech Parliament. Regarding this issue, the authors emphasize the role of EU Affairs Committees within the oversight mechanism. They analyze the composition of such committees in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Czech Parliament, considering the concentration, continuity and specialization of the membership....

Ukládání zbrojních sankcí v sankční praxi Evropské unie

Imposing of Arms Sanctions in the Sanctions Practice of the European Union

Zuzana Trávníčková, Štěpánka Zemanová, Radka Druláková

Současná Evropa 2015, 2015(1):85-105  

The contribution focuses on arms sanctions imposed by the European Union. It introduces EU arms embargoes in a context of current sanctions practice. It explains differences between UN and EU arms sanctions and analyses their causes and consequences. It offers a comparison on several levels, mentions differences in institutional and legal background, in the contents, scope and temporal link. It considers the possibilities of targeting of arms sanctions, and studies how are arms sanctions combined with other restrictive measures (assets freezing and travel bans). It explains different ways of implementation of UN arms embargoes in EU practice. It devotes...

Usnadňování obchodu v liberalizaci mezinárodního obchodu a Evropská unie

Trade Facilitation Through Liberalisation and the EU

Ludmila Štěrbová

Současná Evropa 2015, 2015(1):106-115  

Trade Facilitation is a topic of the discussion of the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since almost its establishment, since the WTO Ministerial Conference in Singapore in 1996. The issue has been included into the agenda of the current round of negotiations that has been open as Doha Development Agenda in 2001 and remains in it also after exclusion of some topics from the agenda in 2004. Trade Facilitation is in interest of developed as well as developing countries. The core of the issue is facilitation and harmonization of procedures accompanying business operation. Progress in this field will have significant benefits for business...

LEUFFEN, D.; RITTBERGER, B.; SCHIMMELFENNIG, F. (2013): Differentiated Integration: Explaining Variation in the European Union

Barbora Hronešová

Současná Evropa 2015, 2015(1):116-117  

Book Review: LEUFFEN, D.; RITTBERGER, B.; SCHIMMELFENNIG, F. (2013): Differentiated Integration: Explaining Variation in the European Union. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-24644-7