Europeum

POLICY PAPER | Demand the impossible: How Ukraine became a candidate for EU membership

February 20, 2023

Tomasz Żornaczuk writes that Russia's aggression in Ukraine has led to major changes in EU enlargement in 2022. The most significant of these was the change in the Union's geographical position after Ukraine and Moldova were granted EU candidate status and Georgia was granted the prospect of accession. The move seemed almost impossible a few weeks before it became the new political reality in June 2022.

INVITATION | EU-Pacific Talks: Europe and the Indo-Pacific: Trade relations with the Indo-pacific

February 15, 2023

We would like to invite you to a debate "EU-Pacific Talks: Europe and the Indo-Pacific: Trade relations with the Indo-pacific", which will take place on 21 February at 13:00 online on our Facebook page.

POLICY PAPER | QMV in CFSP: Impending necessity or resurfacing utopia?

February 14, 2023

Miroslava Pisklová writes about a discussion on potential broadening of the qualified majority voting (QMV) system to more of the remaining policy areas in the Council of the EU in which it is not yet used, namely the EU´s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) that has recently gained momentum. This publication aims to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of introduction of the QMV in CFSP of the EU with a focus on the potential impact on smaller member states.

POLICY PAPER | Shifting the gender quota debate from underrepresentation of women to overrepresentation of men within diplomacy

February 14, 2023

Ivana Uličná writes about the fact that even though some progress has been made towards gender equality in diplomacy, women remain underrepresented in ambassadorial positions worldwide. Quotas have been effective in boosting nominal representation of women but critiques focused on quotas being tokenistic and harming meritocracy place a double burden on women. However, even the current system is not meritocratic, as men benefit from a historical advantage and assumed competence, while women must justify their presence, prove their worth and disprove gender stereotypes.

BLOG: EU Approach v. the Czech Republic: invisible gap in Czechs human rights' legislation

February 10, 2023

Rozálie Wünschová writes in her blog that the Czech Republic is one of only two EU countries where corporal punishment of children is still legally permitted. Together with Slovakia, this puts the Czech Republic behind not only the Nordic countries, where corporal punishment was banned in the last century but also countries such as Turkmenistan, which adopted protective legislation in 2007.

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Report | Monitoring of the EU's Green Policies: Perceptions and Narratives in the Czech and Slovak Information Space

February 02, 2023

The European Green Deal is the core of the current climate strategy of the European Union, which has set the goal of making Europe a carbon-neutral continent by 2050. In an effort to monitor and counter disinformation narratives about the deal, IRI's Beacon project launched an initiative called the “European Green Deal: Mapping perceptions in Central and Eastern Europe,” in which six partner organizations studied how the deal is perceived in Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Our project manager and juniour researcher, Tatiana Mindeková, analyzed narratives spread about the Green Deal and the EU’s green policies through Czech chain emails as well as through selected mainstream media and websites known for spreading disinformation.

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ČT24: The election result sends a signal about the pro-Western direction of the Czech Republic

January 30, 2023

The head of our Brussels office, Žiga Faktor, appeared on Czech Television to comment on the reaction of Brussels to the results of the presidential elections. He also mentioned the role of the president in relation to the EU and NATO and how this relationship will change after two terms of Miloš Zeman.

Policy Paper | Trust in the EU in times of crisis: Public perceptions in the Czech Republic in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic

January 25, 2023

How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the Czechs' relationship with the European Union? This topic is addressed in a policy paper by visiting fellow Mare Ushkovska.

National Convention on the EU | Background paper: formats of regional cooperation from the perspective of the Czech Republic

January 16, 2023

Our senior researcher Jana Juzová and associate research fellow Zuzana Kasáková prepared background material for the Round Table of the National Convention on the EU on the topic of Regional Cooperation Formats from the Czech perspective. The Round Table is presented with three main questions: what position should the Visegrad Group have in Czech foreign policy? How should the Czech Republic approach other regional cooperation formats in Central Europe? How should the Czech Republic use its involvement in European territorial cooperation?

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Foreign Policy: A New Czech Presidential Election Promises a New Era in Politics

January 12, 2023

The upcoming presidential elections in the Czech Republic are also being noticed by foreign media. Our researcher Klára Votavová commented on the circumstances of the election for Foreign Policy, saying that Zeman's presidency has brought scepticism towards Europe. A victory of Andrej Babiš, she said, would then mean a strengthening of the presidential office.