Czechs getting ready for EU - is EU getting ready for Czechs?
The Czech Republic is on the top of the list of candidates for European Union membership, having harmonised 18 chapters of legislation with the EU's acquis communautaire. But the EU itself still has a lot of preparations to make - the 15-member bloc needs to undergo crucial internal reform before enlargement. One problem is how to govern the new bigger EU. When the EU's governing bodies were founded, the Union had 6 members. Today there are 15, and their number will nearly double in a few years' time. There is broad consensus that reform is vital to ensure fair representation for all the members in the decision-making process while maintaining efficiency. The Czech Foreign Ministry hosted an international conference on EU reform on Tuesday, and Vladimir Tax spoke to one of the panellists - Charles University Professor Michal Klima about the thorny issue of reforming the EU.
