German presidency of the Council of the European Union

The Bachelor thesis deals with German presidency of the Council of the European Union after the end of the Cold War. The aim is to characterize the development of German European policy during this period and to determine the role of the institute of presidency for its largest member. The first chapter defines the EU from various theoretical approaches, especially from the perspective of realism and idealism. It also characterizes the formation, functions and objectives of the institute of presidency and discusses the issue of position of large and smaller states. The second chapter describes the objectives, progress and results of all three of the German presidencies (1994, 1999 and 2007), based on which is in the third chapter carried out their comparison and analysis of German European policy changes. In the last chapter, I evaluate and analyze the role of Germany in the EU Council and on that basis I propose some steps that Germany could take in the next presidency. The author concludes that a big state like Germany is able (unlike smaller states) to advance it's own interests also without the institute of EU presidency, but even so, this institution represents for this big state an important instrument for promoting various policies