Czechs in the EU: Changes that the Czechs spearheaded
This year, Czechia is marking the 20th anniversary of its accession to the European Union. When it joined the club, some people in this country were concerned about whether the Czech voice would be heard in the competition of so many other countries, especially the ‘heavy-weights’. Twenty years on, one can say that in a number of cases, the Czechs have even been the driving force behind changes affecting the whole of Europe.
In this instalment of our five-part-series “Czechs in the EU”, we look back at some of the most notable changes that Czechs spearheaded in Europe . My guest is Viktor Daněk, Deputy Director of the Europeum Institute for European Policy.
Viktor let’s go back to 2017 when roaming charges ended in the European Union. That was a big day; we now all pay the same for calls, texts, and data around the EU as we do at home. This is one of the best-known examples where the Union succeeded in removing one of the barriers on the common market. But I think that few people today actually remember that the Czechs made a major contribution to this change, didn’t they?
“Yes, there were actually two of them: Dita Charanzová and Pavel Telička, MEPs who were elected on the ticket of the ANO party. It was actually one of their main topics or promises in the elections in 2014 when they became MEPs.
“But the road to the abolishment of roaming charges was quite difficult. The MEPs pursued this goal, even though some member states were against ending roaming charges. At the time Pavel Telička warned that it would not be good to compromise on this issue.”
Pavel Telička : “Whatever you do, whatever the EU will do in the digital market, the credibility of that would be to a certain extent undermined if we go on roaming half-way. This is an issue, where there are – rightly or wrongly so – high expectations that were raised by the European Union.”
“However, it was definitely not a Czech idea to lower the prices of services of mobile operators in foreign countries. We can trace it back to 2007 when a so-called Euro-tariff became a reality. The Euro-tariff prices were still very high, though. They exceeded the domestic standard, most importantly in the area of data. That is why there were other attempts to fully abolish roaming charges, which were eventually successful.”
It was indeed a much anticipated and greatly appreciated change around Europe. Are there any other examples of laws where Czech MEPs managed to win over Europe for something significant?
“I can think of two examples. The best-known, I think, is the so-called dual quality of products. It was actually the Czechs who first drew attention to this problem –that of identically marked products with different content, different quality in different member states. And it was thanks to Věra Jourová, who was the Commissioner for Consumer Protection at the time, and also of Czech MEP Olga Sehnalová, that the problem came into the spotlight. Those two women managed to convince basically all the others in Brussels that it is indeed a problem that needs to be solved. Eventually, in his “State of the Union” speech in the European Parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker, the Commission President in 2017, promised to fix the problem.
Jean-Claude Juncker : “In a union of equals, there can be no second-class consumers. I cannot accept that people in some parts of Europe, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, are sold food of poorer quality than in others, even though the packaging and brand labelling are identical. Slovaks do not deserve less fish in fish sticks, Hungarians do not deserve less meat in meat dishes or Czechs less cocoa in chocolate. EU law already prohibits such practices. And now we need to give the national authorities more extensive powers so that they can take action against these, yes, illegal practices across the board.”
“Juncker managed to establish a norm under which it is now illegal in the European Union to market products with identical labelling and different quality in the different member states, with some exceptions, of course. It is a paradox that in Czechia, the change didn’t receive any praise at all. It was even heavily criticised exactly for these exceptions, which at that time were seen as a way of by-passing the European legislation.”
That was indeed a hot topic of debate for a very long time in this part of Europe. And the other significant change that we contributed to?
“The other change that I mentioned was also a product of the ANO party. More specifically, it was the idea of Andrej Babiš, who was then Czech finance minister. His number one topic was the fight against tax fraud, and he managed to push through the so-called reverse charge, which is a different way of paying VAT that would reduce the scope for tax evasion in EU countries. Czechia was very tough in its negotiation tactics; it even abused the unanimity vote. It was eventually successful, though, and managed to actually create this possibility to activate reverse charge in European countries. I can say, however, that it is a paradox that when Andrej Babiš left the post of finance minister and became prime minister, his successor Alena Schillerová as minister of finance, decided never to actually use the reverse charge in practice, so it remained only on paper. “
That’s looking back, but Czechs have also left their mark on a number of recently approved laws. To what extent is this related to the Czech Presidency?
“Well, it is well-known that the county that holds the presidency can’t do itself any favours. It should always negotiate impartially. However, looking back, we can obviously see and trace some priorities of Czechia that were then put in a legislation that was negotiated by Czechia. For example, in the area of high energy prices, where Czechia negotiated some quick fix packages, or in the area of climate legislation, for example in the so-called ban on combustion engines. Here, Czechia managed to legalise the possibility to use synthetic fuels, and to make possible a revision of the rules.
“I must also say that Czechia obtained a lot of experience that it can use, and is actually using after the presidency. We saw it in the example of emission norm Euro 7, where Czechia managed to put together a coalition of countries that wanted the changes to be less strict. Eventually, this was successful, so I think that this is something Czechia can use long-term, not only at the time of its presidency.
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