The article examines Czech President Milos Zeman's foreign policy stance on the 2015 EU migration crisis and 2022 Ukraine war, with an emphasis on emotions in comparative perspective. The migration crisis in the presidential discourse triggered criticism of the EU and NATO, emphasizing national sovereignty, while the Ukraine war shifted the focus to cooperation with them. Dominating emotions were anger, fear, and trust, but their proportions changed in the two crises. Anger dominated the 2015 migration crisis for the measures taken and the failure to address the situation efficiently. On the contrary, emotion of trust was prominent in the later crisis, where the collective solutions were considered the path forward. The findings show that observed crises triggered specific foreign policy attitudes expressed through emotions, with the identification of emotions facilitating the identification of foreign policy attitudes in the future.
Amid global political tensions, Central European countries, once aid recipients, have emerged as donors under EU and OECD supervision. Drawing on critical approaches to Europeanisation and donor identity, this article applies a four-dimensional framework of donor identity (discursive, institutional, behavioural, and external) to analyse how the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland construct their roles within EU development policy. While aligning formally with EU and DAC norms, these states often resist the traditional donor model by drawing on their post-socialist experience, lack of colonial legacy, and emphasis on regional proximity and solidarity. Their engagement subtly challenges dominant development narratives, revealing internal tensions and overlooked variation among EU donors. By conceptualising donor identity as a multidimensional and underexplored aspect of development studies, this article contributes to research on the CEE region, Europeanisation, and the evolving role of smaller EU states in global development governance.
Article provides a comparative legal analysis of smart metering regulations in Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia, assessing how national frameworks align with EU objectives on energy efficiency, consumer rights, and data protection. While Hungary applies a pilot-based, cautious rollout with unclear long-term goals, Slovenia offers detailed technical standards and data categories but shows enforcement gaps. Croatia adopts a forward-looking, consumer-oriented and cybersecurity-aware model, yet requires refinement in definitions and data retention rules. The article concludes that an optimal regulatory model could combine Hungary's flexibility, Slovenia's data precision, and Croatia's consumer protection. However, effectiveness depends on full alignment with the GDPR and the establishment of clear, enforceable rights for data subjects. The article also proposes two follow-up directions: (1) developing a practical guide for consumers on their rights regarding smart meters, and (2) exploring competition law implications related to exclusive access to consumer data in liberalized energy markets. Without harmonized EU-level data governance, smart metering may risk reinforcing regulatory inconsistencies and market imbalance.
The issue of care for older adults is gaining importance in the context of population ageing in Europe. Demographic projections of the European Union indicate a continuous rise in the share of older persons, affecting health and social care systems, fiscal sustainability, and the quality of life of the ageing generation. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of current trends in longterm care in four European Union countries-Malta, Italy, Sweden, and Spain, which record the highest life expectancy at birth among their populations. The aim is to identify common features of successful models and assess the potential to transfer those elements to other contexts. The findings underscore the importance of community-based care, strong support for informal caregivers, and investment in prevention and healthy ageing. These results provide inspiration for policy development in other countries, including Slovakia, where an integrated and functional framework for longterm care is lacking.
This study explores the long-term care service landscape across international contexts, attempting to identify and categorise unique typologies within the global environment. It investigates how the structural, organisational, and operational aspects of welfare systems influence social service provision in five typical welfare state models. The study uses qualitative comparison analysis, specifically a fuzzy-set ideal type analysis, to identify significant welfare actors and calibration points. The findings illustrate the intricate interplay of state, market, and societal actors in generating welfare pluralism within LTC systems, which is influenced by route dependency and socio-cultural variables. The results contribute to academic discourses on long-term care system dynamics by utilising a welfare pluralism viewpoint and a fuzzy-set technique that considers the multifaceted character of long-term care service provision. It has significant implications for policymakers and academics working to improve the equity, efficiency, and responsiveness of long-term care service system across various national and subnational contexts.
