Decision Making of the Czech Republic in the Post-Lisbon EU

Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community (the Lisbon Treaty, LT) substantially reforms the decision-making and the functioning of the European Union. According to its population and its economic indicators, the Czech Republic is considered an important member of the Community possessing significant power. The degree of the Czech Republic contestations rate in legislation falling under the ordinary legislative procedure (OLP) is going to be assessed. Since the Lisbon Treaty is an important milestone in the decision-making evolution of the Community (broadening the scope of application of qualified majority voting in the Council together with co-decision of the EP signify a fundamental change in balance of power among the institutions of the EU), it is therefore desirable to research the post-Lisbon decision-making. The main goal is to answer the question, which cleavage is the most relevant in affecting the decision-making of the Czech Republic in the post-Lisbon EU (namely in the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament) in the areas of legislation falling under the OLP. There are five crucial cleavages appropriate for testing: Actor´s ideology; Length of the membership; Size of the member; Economic power; and EU budget position. It is assumed that the economic factors have more significant impact on Czech decision-making than the structural and ideological factors. Therefore the cleavages Economic power and EU budget position are supposed to be substantially more important than cleavages Actor’s ideology; Length of the membership; and Size of the member. Contestation rate is assessed by two methods: The first method uses the length of the legislative process; the other tool for contestation rate assessment takes into account the number of readings in the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The research focuses on the legislation under the OLP. Since the Treaty of Lisbon, this procedure constitutes the most important way of decision-making in the EU. The European Commission submits around 180 legislative proposals under the OLP each year. Therefore, more than 1000 legislative proposals have been submitted under the OLP by the European Commission since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force. Considering the lack of research of the decision-making of the Czech Republic in the EU, the main added value of the paper is to fill in this gap in knowledge.