Kohout: government priority must be ‘repairing damage’ done by domestic political problems at EU level

The priority of the Czech interim government must be repairing the damage done to the country’s EU presidency by recent domestic political turbulence, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said in an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday. Mr Kohout said that the success of the Czech EU presidency would also depend on the outcome of an EU summit in June, at which a new Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty would be discussed. The foreign minister said that the change of government in Prague had ‘certainly not contributed’ to the Czech Republic’s image in the European Union. In the interview with the German daily, however, Mr Kohout stressed that the European Union was not currently running on ‘autopilot’ and that the new Czech government was up to the task.

Author: Rosie Johnston