Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Robert Zbíral Title: Standard Institution of the European Union? Changes to the European Council`s Working Methods During the Financial Crisis Abstract: 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 that representatives of the Member States used all necessary means to adapt the working methods to the most effective solution of the crisis and overlooked any limitations of the European Council’s addition to the EU institutional framework. Based on empirical enquiry into selected aspects of the European Council’s functioning, the hypothesis is confirmed. Keywords: institutional framework, Eurozone Crisis, European Council, economic governance, President of the European Council, instruments of negotiations, Evropská rada, krize v Eurozóně, ekonomické vládnutí, předseda Evropské rady, institucionální rámec EU, vyjednávací nástroje Pages: 4-18 Volume: 2015 Issue: 1 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/download.php?jnl=se&pdf=112.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/112 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlsev:v:2015:y:2015:i:1:id:112:p:4-18 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlsev/references/112 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Eva Štefková Title: Federalism Applied to Multi-level Political Systems Abstract: 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 of federal concept to any multi-level political system that integrates heterogeneities in one unity is argued in the next part. The ambition of the article is to contribute to the richness of federalism itself as well as to redefine the concept in the terms of contemporary multi-level Europe. Keywords: Sovereignty, Suverenita, Multi-level Governance, Víceúrovňové vládnutí, federalism, law, political science, international relations, European studies, federalismus, právo, politologie, mezinárodní vztahy, evropská studia Pages: 19-38 Volume: 2015 Issue: 1 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/download.php?jnl=se&pdf=113.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/113 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlsev:v:2015:y:2015:i:1:id:113:p:19-38 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlsev/references/113 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Barbora Hronešová Title: Book Review: LEUFFEN, D.; RITTBERGER, B.; SCHIMMELFENNIG, F. (2013): Differentiated Integration: Explaining Variation in the European Union Abstract: 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 Pages: 116-117 Volume: 2015 Issue: 1 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/download.php?jnl=se&pdf=119.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/119 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlsev:v:2015:y:2015:i:1:id:119:p:116-117 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Zuzana Křečková Title: Do Cultural Values Drive Quotas? Abstract: 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 index has no influence on the propensity to adopting legislative measures regarding gender balance on corporate boards across European countries. Keywords: EU, EU, women, quotas, corporate boards, national culture, masculinity, femininity, Geert Hofstede, ženy, kvóty, firemní řídící orgány, národní kultura, maskulinita, femininita, Geert Hofstede Classification-JEL: J16, M12, M14 Pages: 39-51 Volume: 2015 Issue: 1 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/download.php?jnl=se&pdf=114.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/114 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlsev:v:2015:y:2015:i:1:id:114:p:39-51 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlsev/references/114 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Veronika Valkovičová Title: Soft Law And the Discourse of Gender-Based Violence in the European Union Agenda - the Case of FRA`s Violence Against Women Abstract: 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 via the analysis of a survey on violence against women published by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Keywords: violence against women, gender-based violence, gender equality, EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, násilie na ženách, rodovo podmienené násilie, rodová rovnosť, Agentúra pre základné práva EÚ, feminizmus dekonštrukcie, deconstructivist feminism Classification-JEL: D73, D78, D79 Pages: 52-66 Volume: 2015 Issue: 1 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/download.php?jnl=se&pdf=115.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/115 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlsev:v:2015:y:2015:i:1:id:115:p:52-66 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlsev/references/115 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Martin Kuta Author-Name: Jan Němec Title: The Character of Membership as a Determinant of Different Performance? An Exploratory Analysis of European Affairs Committees of the Czech Parliament Abstract: 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. In all these criteria, the EU Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies expresses lower concentration and continuity (both in time and in comparison with another standing committee and EU Affairs Committee of the Senate) and more fragmented specialization. These differences may contribute to different oversight performance of both chambers and the results of this exploratory analysis open further research possibilities on the strategies of parliamentary party groups regarding the nomination to these committees. Keywords: European union, Evropská unie, national parliaments, EU affairs committees, parliamentary oversight, národní parlamenty, výbory pro evropské záležitosti, parlamentní kontrola Classification-JEL: D71, D72, F55, H10 Pages: 67-84 Volume: 2015 Issue: 1 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/download.php?jnl=se&pdf=116.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/116 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlsev:v:2015:y:2015:i:1:id:116:p:67-84 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlsev/references/116 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Zuzana Trávníčková Author-Name: Štěpánka Zemanová Author-Name: Radka Druláková Title: Imposing of Arms Sanctions in the Sanctions Practise of the European Union Abstract: 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 intensive attention to EU autonomous arms sanctions, points to wider possibilities of EU by imposing of sanctions. Keywords: European union, Evropská unie, arms embargo, mezinárodní sankce, zbrojní embargo, International Sanctions, United Nations, arms sanctions, restrictive measures, zbrojní sankce, omezující opatření, Organizace spojených národů Classification-JEL: F51, K42, L64 Pages: 85-105 Volume: 2015 Issue: 1 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/download.php?jnl=se&pdf=117.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/117 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlsev:v:2015:y:2015:i:1:id:117:p:85-105 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlsev/references/117 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ludmila Štěrbová Title: Trade Facilitation Through Liberalisation and the EU Abstract: 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 sphere, but it requires an extended investment from the participating governments. The text sums up the area of Trade Facilitation and deals with interests of the EU in this field. Keywords: EU, EU, WTO, WTO, Trade Facilitation, usnadňování obchodu Classification-JEL: F02, F13, F15, F42 Pages: 106-115 Volume: 2015 Issue: 1 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/download.php?jnl=se&pdf=118.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/se/118 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlsev:v:2015:y:2015:i:1:id:118:p:106-115 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlsev/references/118