Macinka and Wadephul sign memorandum extending Czech-German Future Fund

Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka and his German counterpart Johann Wadephul signed a memorandum in Berlin on Friday extending the Czech-German Future Fund until 2037. Established under the 1997 Czech-German Declaration, the fund supports cross-border projects and Czech-German reconciliation initiatives. The two sides will decide on its future financing at a later stage.

Macinka welcomed the fact that the meeting took place on May 8th, the anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. Earlier in the day, he laid flowers at Berlin’s former Plötzensee prison, where more than 670 Czechoslovaks were executed by the Nazis during the war.

Speaking there with Czech-German Discussion Forum co-chair Jörg Nürnberger, Macinka also commented on the planned Sudeten German congress in Brno later this month. He said Sudeten German leader Bernd Posselt had underestimated the reaction the event would provoke in the Czech Republic and criticised the choice of local partners for the gathering.