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Albanian judiciary under construction

Author(s): Megi Bakiasi / Language(s): English

The Albanian judicial system is a civil law system that is codified and based on the French law. The actual Constitution6 was compiled with the assistance of the EU; the laws of the country have all been modified and adapted so that they are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental rights of the European Union. The 2016 reform of the judiciary was not any different as it was compiled under a close surveillance from the EU and it was based on a European standard of how the judiciary branch should function.

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Health and Public communication in the era of conspiracy theories

Author(s): Milan Urbaník / Language(s): English

The Czech government is under increased pressure to persuade citizens to vaccinate themselves against Covid-19. The strong presence of anti-vaccination movements, as well as general scepticism of Czech public against vaccination represents a serious challenge for public communication. To communicate effectively in the context of conspiracy theories, the Czech Ministry of Health should follow simple best practices to persuade citizens to vaccinate. The messages communicated should be clear and simple, delivered by reliable and familiar messengers. Furthermore, the right channels should be considered, and various governmental institutions should be consistent in their messages. In addition to the short-term adjustments, the Ministry of Health should consider employing or training health communication experts that would design, pre-test and evaluate health campaigns to realise the full persuasive potential of health communication.

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Citizenship and residency by investment in the EU

Author(s): Rose Hartwig-Peillon / Language(s): English

Whilst the granting of citizenship and residence rights remain a national competence, they represent a challenge for the entire Union. Indeed, in addition to being ethically questionable, Residency and Citizenship by Investment (RCBI) schemes pose a serious security threat to the European Union as a whole. The evidence gathered suggests that companies specializing in citizenship consultancy have become experts in exploiting the schemes’ loopholes, using this knowledge on behalf of their clients to circumvent EU rules. The lack of transparency of the programs allows corruption to bloom and thrive, and the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to increase the demand for such schemes. Hence, this paper calls for a major redesign of the existing programs and for an EU-wide debate on the schemes at the occasion of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

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Co čekat od nového klimaticko-energetického balíčku Fit for 55?

Author(s): Lucie Vinařská / Language(s): Czech

In July, the European Commission is expected to present the long-awaited climate and energy legislative package called »Fit for 55«, which refers to a new climate target for 2030. In December 2020, the European Union approved an increase in the 2030 emissions reduction target from the original 40% to the new 55% (compared to 1990 levels). With this step, the EU wants to move closer to its declared goal of climate neutrality by 2050. Therefore, high hopes are placed on the new Fit for 55 package. However, the question remains what reforms the legislative package will bring and what this will mean for the Czech Republic.

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Transatlantic Strategy – Where Does Central and Eastern Europe Stand?

Author(s): Danielle Piatkiewicz / Language(s): English

As the world continues to watch how the US develops its new foreign policy orientation, one thing is certain – if Central and Eastern Europe want to play a strategic role in building the new transatlantic agenda, they should focus on areas including: strengthening their security posture especially under the framework of NATO, countering geopolitical threats such as Russia and China, and addressing the growing democratic backsliding and rule of law in their neighborhood. If not, the region can become susceptible to further division by internal and external actors and undermine EU cohesion. This remains a core aspect of building the new transatlantic relationship as the US wants to engage with a cohesive EU, not a fragmented one. This analysis will take a snapshot of Biden’s foreign and security policies towards the EU and in particular, the Central and Eastern European region. It will provide a range of recommendations on how they can engage closer as partners over the next four years and beyond.

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Analysing EU’s Sahel strategies: A civilian approach in the era of pragmatism

Author(s): Vojtěch Freitag / Language(s): English

In the past few months, developments in the vast African Sahel region are once again becoming a concern for the European policymakers. Attacks in Burkina Faso, a violent death of the Chadian president or a second coup d’état in Mali in a year followed by a recent French announcement of suspension of Operation Barkhane, all of these events prove significant for the EU in the light of its extensive engagement in the region, embodied, among other things, with two civilian (EUCAP Sahel Mali and Niger) and one military mission (EUTM Mali) under the CSDP umbrella. This April, the EU has unveiled and adopted a brand-new long-term 2021 Sahel strategy, which should reflect the turbulent development and better coordinate the multiple policies and instruments the EU pursues in the region. Does it signal a notable change in EU’s course of action in Sahel? How does it relate to the ‘pragmatist turn’ in the EU’s foreign policy? And what particular issues do the three CSDP missions face? This paper aims to address these questions by analysing past and present EU Sahel strategies and practices, positions them into the wider EU foreign policy context, and presents a recommendation to a specific aspect that remains challenging.

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Topics: Czech 2022 Presidency to the Council of the EU

Author(s): Vít Havelka / Language(s): English

The Czech Republic will hold its rotating presidency to the EU Council in the second half of 2022. Czechs will be in charge of the EU for the second time after their historical first presidency in 2009 that suffered from the collapse of the Czech government and subsequent political turmoil. Today, Czechs are preparing to don the mantle once again, and one would presume they would want to prove that their public administration and politicians are able to lead the EU, and that media would be filled with reports about the preparatory work. Looking at the current political discussion, however, the exact opposite is true. Most media reporting has concentrated on the political battle over the presidency budget, but almost nothing has been written on the actual topics and priorities of the Czech programme. The academic sphere and pundits are also falling short of their role as agenda-setters, consultants and opinion makers.

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Jaké klima přinesou německé a české volby?

Author(s): Lucie Vinařská / Language(s): Czech

Climate change has become one of the most important topics of our time. A recent IPCC report called the last 5 years the warmest years in history, once again confirming the urgency of the ongoing climate crisis. To avert the worst-case scenarios, systemic changes are needed, which now lie mainly on the shoulders of politicians. The long-awaited parliamentary elections, which will be held in the autumn of this year in both the Czech Republic and neighboring Germany, may be an opportunity to change current policies. Although we face climate change together as member states of the European Union, the emphasis on combating climate change is emphasized with varying degrees of intensity in the Czech Republic and Germany. What are the fundamental differences in the approach of Czechs and Germans to climate policy? What is the prevailing political climate in the countries and do we still have a chance for change?

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Green Transformation: reconfiguration of consumption in Norway and the Czech Republic in a more sustainable direction. Comparisons and identification of knowledge gaps

Author(s): Vít Havelka,Torvald Tangeland,Petr Soukup,Nikola Horejs,Pål Strandbakken / Language(s): English

The following paper is a part of the project Green Transformation: Sustainable Consumption and European Single Market policies supported by the Norway Grants in the Czech Republic. The project aims at strengthening the cooperation between Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) at OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University, EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, STEM and Charles University in sociological research concerning European integration, de-carbonisation, sustainability, and the role of consumption in relation to climate change. We expect that the following research note will become a baseline for our future joint research in the aforementioned areas. The goal is to fill the current gaps in knowledge so that policy makers and scientists have sufficient amount of data to propose climate neutral and sustainable policies.

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Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development: A troubleshooting guide for reluctant EU donors

Author(s): Ondřej Horký-Hlucháň / Language(s): English

The inclusion of the Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) in the Sustainable Development Goals as Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD) created a conceptual and institutional confusion that overloaded implementation capacities of many EU member states. The Visegrad Group and other ‘reluctant’ aid donors should primarily pursue both PCD and PCSD separately as a recognition of their logic of action in foreign and domestic policy-making respectively. Due to the complexity of the agendas, they should also focus on the low hanging fruits. To promote Policy Coherence for Development, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs should reclaim full ownership for the PCD agenda and keep National Focal Points for PCD with dedicated capacities. They should select one or at maximum two policy areas with the highest potential and focus on the already existing intra-ministerial procedures and inter-ministerial Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) to tackle transboundary effects in the related domestic policy proposals. They should ally with the civil society, academia and media to bring positive and/or negative evidence and mediate personal experience of the impact of national policies on the global South

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EU’s Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising: Good Intentions but Clarifications and Amendments still Needed

Author(s): Katarína Klingová / Language(s): English

The development information technologies, including social media platforms with possibilities of micro-targeted campaigns quickly transformed the concept of political communication and electoral campaigning. The negative impact on electoral system and democratic political processes was revealed with Cambridge Analytica and its scandal, which was just one of many companies offering such services. Online political advertising has not only opened up new possibilities for democratic dialogue and creative engagement, it has also become a relatively cheap and easy way of amplifying information manipulation as well. The impact of such online information manipulation was possible to observe, among others, during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, the Brexit Referendum in the UK as well as the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. As these new vulnerabilities have emerged with the rise of online political advertising, the European Commission’s aim to tackle them and limit their impact on the quality of democracy should be recognized. On November 25, EU Commission published a proposal for a regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertisement . This paper attempts to provide a constructive feedback on the proposed draft bringing into attention observed practices in information landscaped and election campaigns from Central Europe. Facebook, as the most used and thus the most influential social media platform in the region, is the focus of this paper.

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Between Pragmatism and Principles – EU and the Consolidation of Authoritarianism in its Southern Neighbourhood

Author(s): Sara Nowacka / Language(s): English

The way the EU policy towards its southern neighbourhood was changing after the Arab spring emphasises efficiency of Arab leaders’ consolidating authoritarian rule in the region. Although these autocrats are important EU partners in areas of security and migration, it is likely that their regional interventionism and increase in repressions will influence further destabilisation. To counter the challenges these autocrats’ actions pose for the EU, it could develop a special kind of partnership for its reform-prone neighbours and acknowledge conflicting interests with some of Arab most powerful and authoritarian states.

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Czechia’s Policies within the EU in the Context of the Upcoming Presidency to the EU Council

Author(s): Łukasz Ogrodnik / Language(s): English

As Czechia will hold its rotating presidency to the EU Council in the second half of 2022, the government in Prague will have an increased influence on setting the EU’s agenda. This paper is an attempt to describe priorities of the upcoming Presidency in relation to the Czech European policy, and most probable challenges (both for Czechia and the EU). The article will also find common points between Czechia’s policies in the EU and stances of other V4 members.

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Challenges of regulating innovative technologies

Author(s): Michala Stupková / Language(s): English

Modern technologies are an inherent part of today's world and research is advancing at a rapid pace. The disruptive technologies such as AI, DLT, IoT, VR or robotics are currently booming for instance in healthcare, transportation, agriculture, energetics, or finance. Although the use of these innovative technologies undoubtedly provides many benefits to various subjects, it might also potentially pose certain risks. Regulators all over the world are therefore challenged to find the most efficient regulatory approaches that would not only achieve the intended regulatory objectives but also wouldn’t result in unnecessary administrative barriers or in prevention of a further development of innovations. Some of the obstacles the regulators face are, however, the rapidly changing environment, the length of the legislative process or limited understanding of the technology. This policy paper therefore identifies the regulatory challenges and demonstrates a few legislative techniques used by the European union in the recent legislative proposals which aim to tackle these challenges. Furthermore, the policy paper summarizes the key principles that the EU should adhere to when regulating new technologies to ensure the appropriate protection of users, businesses, investments, or financial stability while at the same time supporting technological innovation. Robust but reasonable regulation without unnecessary and overly burdensome obligations seems to be the solution for the EU to be a global regulatory standard setter and to stay at the forefront of the tech development.

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Czech-Russian Escalation as a Case of Deeper EU-Russia Crisis: Time for a United and Credible Action

Author(s): Pavel Havlíček / Language(s): English

It is essential to see the Czech-Russian crisis not as an isolated incident (or accident) but rather as a part of a wider series of crises between the West and Russia, of which this is just the most vivid example of how far things might go. Similar escalations have recently appeared in bilateral ties of Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Spain, Lithuania or Ukraine and other countries too. They are a part of a deeper and more structural issue, which does not necessarily have anything in common with behaviour of individual European states, but rather Russia’s revisionist perception of the world. This fact is also connected to the Russian appetite to confront the West in order to regain its great power status for which an effort to undermine and divide the West is an obvious tactic.

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The Future of Energy Poverty: Will the Social Climate Fund be enough for a Just Transition?

Author(s): Katharine Klačanský / Language(s): English

A just transition towards a green economy is one that leaves no one behind. In 2020, a European Union (EU) wide survey concluded that over thirty-million people within the EU population are unable to properly heat their homes. On the one hand, decarbonising the EU’s energy system is critical in reaching the EU Green Deal’s climate objective of carbon neutrality by 2050 and reducing emissions by at least 55% compared to 1990 levels, as presented in the Fit for 55 package by 2030. On the other hand, vulnerable citizens in low-income families, who are already feeling the brunt of the incline in energy prices, will be impacted even more as they have less resources and finances to move away from fossil fuels. The ecological transition, therefore, is not cost-free and comes with several challenges that need to be addressed to ensure the social and economic welfare of all European Member State (MS) citizens are met.

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Evaluating Transatlantic Relations in Times of Conflict

Author(s): Danielle Piatkiewicz / Language(s): English

The transatlantic relationship has faced many trials and tribulations over the years, often questioning the strength and resilience of the alliance. However, on February 24, 2022, the allies found quick resolve and newfound purpose in response to Russia’s illegal invasion into Ukraine. The global response to the conflict was, and remains, unprecedented. Instead of dividing, the war has reunited global allies and put aside grievances to provide decisive and swift reactions. The war has demonstrated unparalleled level of political will and unity but also displayed a rejuvenated NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and displayed the European Union (EU)’s advancing security capabilities. This background paper will evaluate the current transatlantic agenda and goals of both the EU and US as they, for the first time since World War II, navigate a war-time Europe. It will assess how the two sides can work closer together as the EU establishes its new security architecture, tackle geopolitical challengers such as Russia and China, pursue strategic economic and energy autonomy, and reinforce the democratic values that bind the allies. Finally, the paper aims to provide insights on how to strengthen the transatlantic relationship with special emphasis placed on how the Central and Eastern European can play a pivotal role.

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Soaring Electricity Prices and Development in the EU; the Electricity Market Design under Scrutiny?

Author(s): Tereza Stašáková / Language(s): English

The current situation, when dependence on one leading supplier has turned out to be a dire mistake, contributes to the decision to accelerate the energy transition away from fossil fuels and, above all, decrease import dependence. Contrary to the preliminary assumptions we can already say that the current situation has further accelerated the European energy transformation towards renewable energy sources (RES) as they represent a self-sufficient and low-cost resource in terms of operating costs. However, more than this is needed, as reducing dependence on fossil fuels and replacing them with other sources is a long-term process, not to mention that the EU does not have the production capacities or rare materials for the massive development of RES. Thus, European regulatory framework will need to adjust and, in an effort, to address the current crisis it is already happening.

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Priority předsednictví České republiky v Radě EU

Author(s): Vladimír Bartovic / Language(s): Czech

The country assuming the presidency has to deal with a wide range of tasks. It is responsible for preparing the agenda for Council meetings at various levels, in cooperation with the General Secretariat of the Council for the administrative management of the Council's activities, for representing the Council towards other EU institutions and third parties, and for negotiating agreements between Member States. At the same time, the presidency country strives to fulfil its own individual objectives and priorities. In order to effectively fulfil the objectives of the EU in general and the priorities of the individual presidencies, each Member State participates in the preparation of an eighteen-month programme within the framework of the so-called trio of countries. The Czech Republic, as in 2009, will cooperate with France and Sweden.

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Konference o budoucnosti Evropy z pohledu České republiky

Author(s): Vladimír Bartovic,Vít Havelka,Zuzana Kasáková / Language(s): Czech

In July 2019, the current President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented an initiative to organize a Conference on the Future of Europe as part of the political priorities of the new Commission. Its goal should be to transform the European Union so that it can adequately respond to current and future challenges, strengthen its democratic character and meet the needs of EU citizens. To this end, not only EU institutions and individual national actors, but above all EU citizens should be involved in the debate on the future of the European Union. According to the President of the EC, they should become the engine of change in the further direction of the integration process. One of the arguments for emphasizing the need to debate the reform of the European Union in a broader context was the higher participation of EU citizens in the elections to the European Parliament, which took place in the spring of last year and in which voter turnout reached the highest level in the last twenty years.

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