Czechs take their turn in the EU hot seat
On 1 January 2009, almost 20 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Czech Republic becomes the first former Soviet Bloc country to take over the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union. Besides the historic symbolism of this event, the upcoming presidency will provide the Czech government with a unique opportunity to influence the EU agenda in the coming months. A successful stint at the helm of Europe could also help the country raise its profile and enhance its standing among its European partners. This is all the more pertinent given the fact that the Czech Republic’s reputation in Brussels has been tarnished of late, because of the country’s protracted ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and much-publicised comments by the Czech president Vaclav Klaus denouncing this document, which is seen by many as a crucial step for further EU enlargement. Conversely, if the Czech presidency is not smoothly managed by the country’s politicians, there is a very real risk that the country’s credibility within the EU could be damaged even further.
VOX POP:
“I don’t really know what it means for us or our government. But I know it means that we will be in the position of a negotiator within the European Union. So it could help us to be more visible within the EU.”
“I think it could be useful in that we can somehow be involved in decision-making and have some moral authority to make certain decisions. But, on the other hand, I think the EU’s policies are so tightly organised that there is not much we can do. Generally speaking, we might be able to do some better lobbying.”
“I guess I know quite a lot about it because there are many advertisements being broadcast on the TV and radio about this subject. So I do have a lot of information on the presidency. But that’s about it probably. I don’t see any big advantage in being the leader of the European Union for half a year. The bigger countries really rule the EU, not us. We can support some decisions and perhaps introduce some small things for the future, but I don’t think it could influence our future as a country.”
“I don’t see any big advantage in it. It’s just a part of European business. I don’t think it will impact on us in any way. It’s more interesting than important for us, I think.”
“I know nothing about it! Sorry.”
“We’ll kind of be like the chairman of the EU, but what else?! (laughs)"
“We know that if something is happening, like the crisis in Israel, for example, then we are the ones who will speak on behalf of the EU. But I don’t know anything about the regular things that will be discussed.”
“I know it’s going to happen, but I don’t know how it’s going to affect anyone here. Probably not a lot!”
The presidency of the EU is a good chance for a country to promote itself within Europe, especially if they do a good job of hosting discussions during the presidency. Are you confident that your political class will rise to the occasion?
“Not at all. Absolutely not. (laughs)”
“I just hope that they keep a low profile so that if there is any kind of screw-up, the whole world won’t have to find out about it. I am not too confident in our representatives...”
If the opinions of the people we talked to on the streets of Prague this week are anything to go by, quite a number of Czechs seem to think that their country’s presidency of the European Union will perhaps raise the country’s profile a little bit, but will not have much influence on EU affairs.
Petr Mach is an economist with the Centre for Economics and Politics, a Prague-based Eurosceptic think tank. He also does not attach much importance to the Czech presidency of the European Union:
“I think that every country can have a desire to influence European Union policies, but I think this is more important for big countries like France or Germany. As big countries, they are really able to influence the European Union’s policies rather than smaller countries like the Czech Republic. Furthermore, the Czech Republic has no global ambitions. It is not a European power. Instead, it’s a rather modest, small country. Consequently, we have no desire to impose our own views or visions on others. Therefore, we will hold this presidency. We will hold all the summits and we will try to express some of our views, but we don’t have any ambition to influence the direction of the EU. I don’t think this is possible.”
On the other hand, the academic Ivo Šlosarčík from the Europeum Institute for European Policy believes that the Czech Republic’s presidency of the EU Council will have some bearing on the future direction of the European Union:
“I would say that the Czech Republic will definitely not give a new shape to EU affairs, but we quite like to think that we will leave a Czech fingerprint on EU business.
“But we can leave a Czech fingerprint on many areas, where we feel quite confident and comfortable. For instance if you compare the motto of the outgoing French EU presidency, which was calling for a “Safe Europe”, with the Czech motto, which is “Europe without Barriers”, you can see that some differences exist between the two approaches, and that the Czech Republic will stress some other tones in the harmony of the EU. We are slightly adjusting the tones, not the whole orchestra.”
Petr Mach, however, thinks the Czech government’s desire to use its presidency to promote a “Europe without Barriers” does not have much substance, especially in terms of relaxing restrictions on the free movement of people and services:
“The official motto of the Czech presidency is Europe without Barriers, but this is only symbolic, because our neighbours Austria and Germany still insist that they will keep restrictions until 2011. Consequently, there will be no free movement of labour between the Czech Republic and Germany until 2011. The Czech presidency can do nothing about this, because this was negotiated in our accession treaties, and Germany has the right to keep these restrictions in place until then. So there is no power for the presidency or the EU as such to drop these restrictions. So it’s only symbolic and there can be no European decision or anything that could remove these restrictions.”
The Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Marek Mora is one of the people involved in preparing the Czech Republic for its presidency of the European Union. He maintains that the official Czech motto for its time in the EU cockpit will have a powerful resonance, especially in view of the fact that the Czech Republic is only the second EU newcomer after Slovenia to preside over the Union and the first country from the former Soviet Bloc to do so:
“Europe without Barriers has two important connotations. The first one is historical or political. It should remind us of the fifth anniversary of the biggest EU enlargement, which we will celebrate next year and the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain back in 1989. Everyone would agree that very important barriers fell five years ago and twenty years ago. These are the historical and political connotations.
“Then there are economic connotations. These are perhaps now even more important than we thought, because certainly, with the upcoming economic crisis, popular and political demand for protectionism will rise and I think that and the Czech government believes that it will be very important to show the medium and long-term visions of the EU for free trade and enhancing internal markets, i.e. not having barriers is the only way out of the crisis not protectionism.”
Petr Mach is suspicious of this optimistic view of what the Czech Republic can achieve in terms of promoting greater free trade, especially when the global economy has just experienced a sharp downturn:
Naturally, Marek Mora disagrees. He says that the country will be ready to push the EU agenda forward in a number of key areas:
“We have prepared our programme very carefully. We know what our priorities are. These are now being communicated as the three E’s – Economy, Energy and Europe in the World. This is something that we partially inherited, but which we partly also determined ourselves.
So what does Mora think the Czech Republic can achieve in the three priority areas it has identified for its presidency:
“As for the main priorities, the economy is clear. I have already mentioned free trade, but we will also have to combat an economic crisis and do all the follow-up work on the European economic recovery plan, which was published by the European Commission and agreed by the European Council in December. So this is one thing. Another thing is the enhancement of the internal market, fighting for the free movement of people and services. This is something that has not yet been completed.”
“Energy security is also something very important, both in terms of the EU’s internal energy grid etc. as well as external energy relations and energy diversification. The routes by which we get our energy sources are very important in Europe. I think everyone agrees on this, especially in these times. This is now one of the key issues for Europe.”
As regards the remaining priority area for the Czech presidency – Europe in the World, Marek Mora says the country will adopt a three-pronged approach to the EU’s foreign relations:
“Europe in the World – or the EU in the world – is an area in which we have several smaller priorities such as transatlantic relations, which is very important. This EU presidency will be the first one to start negotiating with the new US administration of President Barack Obama.
“The second priority is eastern partnership, which is something that has been decided already by the European Council. We should actually have a launching summit for the 27 EU countries plus five or even six other states depending how things develop in Belarus.
The shadow of Russia will loom largely over the Czech Republic’s desire to focus on securing energy supplies as well as on its attempts to promote links with third countries on the European Union’s eastern borders, which Moscow regards as its traditional sphere of influence.
Given its historical experience of dealing with Russia, Ivo Šlosárčik says the Czech Republic is actually in a good position to help plot a course for the EU’s increasingly delicate relations with Moscow:
“Of course the eastern dimension of EU foreign policy is not only about Russia. I think the Czech Republic won’t focus primarily on Russia but on other countries in the region – the Caucasian states, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.
“However, the new member states, not only the Czech Republic but all the new member states of Eastern and Central Europe could bring something new to EU-Russian relations and the eastern dimension of EU policy. It’s something that we can do. Of course, we are not major power players. We understand, for instance, our dependence on Russian energy supplies, but I think we can present a very good balance of realistic and idealistic policies towards the east.
“Not being naive is very important. We have our experience of the communist period but also have experience as EU insiders. So if we are able to combine these two experiences to really formulate a policy that is not naive towards the east, then I think we will have delivered and done our job as president very well.”
One difficulty the Czech Republic will have to deal with is the fact that it is one of only two countries yet to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, which is supposedly the blueprint for ensuring that increasingly large and unwieldy EU structures can be streamlined and made more effective. Ivo Šlosarčík agrees that the Czech Republic’s failure to approve this document before it takes over the EU presidency puts it in an awkward position:
“Yes, it’s a complication because as a presiding state, the Czech Republic should have a leading role in solving the issue and the future of the Lisbon Treaty. If we want to be in the cockpit or chair of the EU negotiation process, this doesn’t just include formal negotiations, but also political debates. Of course, this means that we must be neutral or at least give the impression of being neutral. Naturally this is harder to achieve when we are at the extreme end of the European ratification process as one of two countries in the EU which has still not ratified the document.”
Ivo Šlosarčík, however, believes the importance of Václav Klaus’s views on this issue have been overplayed, especially by foreign media:
“In the Czech system of government, the prime minister is the centre of executive power, including foreign relations. And the government supports the approval of the Treaty in both chambers of the Czech parliament. But this will be voted upon in February. For domestic political reasons, they were not happy with having an early debate, so they postponed it until then. But as far as the Lisbon Treaty and intensive involvement in the integration process is concerned, the prime minister and his government are in favour. This should be stressed again and again. The Czech president is not the dominant actor in Czech foreign policy.
As the first former Eastern Bloc country to take over the presidency of the EU it is likely that the country’s performance will be monitored with some curiosity by older European Union states. Former head of the Czech Senate’s foreign affairs committee Josef Jařab believes his country can use the presidency to show how far the country and Europe has come less than two decades after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989.
“We should and will concentrate on bringing Europe together from the former Eastern Bloc to the freer western bloc. I don’t think that we will be overlooked in this sense.
“Even if people only come here and see what the Czech Republic is like and how the people sort of behave, what is on the agenda, how well it’s prepared, etc. For many people this will be a surprise. It’s not that we want to impress them, but they should realise that this is one part of Europe that has been sort of shut out for 50 years but has now come back and has survived quite nicely despite all the decades when democracy and civilisation was suppressed. This should be also appreciated and I think it will be by reasonable people.”
Petr Mach, however, is dismissive of any notion that the Czech Republic’s first stint at the helm of the European Union has any historical importance:
“There is no symbolism in it. We are members of the EU since May 2004, so there has been something like six presidencies before the Czech Republic’s, including Slovenia. Sweden, Poland and other countries will follow after the Czech presidency. So I don’t think there is any such symbolism. The main step taken by Western democracies after the fall of communism was the opening of borders, the introduction of visa-free movement for people to all Western European countries, and signing trade agreements with European communities. As a result, entering the EU was much less important than integrating into NATO and signing trade agreements with European communities after the fall of communism. In comparison with these previous steps, the Czech presidency of the EU is now almost irrelevant.”
“The symbolic element is very important. On the other hand, I quite like to understand this Czech presidency as being about business as usual, because if we are a standard member state, then the Czech presidency should be as standard as possible.
“Internally, of course, it’s a very symbolic thing. A kind of kindergarten period of Czech EU membership is over. We now have full adult membership. We are having to take responsibility for running EU business. However, as we like to think of ourselves as a normal, standard EU country, we must interpret the Czech presidency as business as usual.”
Despite the Czech Republic’s ambitious agenda for its presidency, it is quite likely that the country will have to adapt the programme it has developed to deal with unexpected events that might crop up while it presides over the EU.
The recent crisis in Israel is a case in point. Marek Mora says there are also a number of other external factors that could pose a challenge to the Czech Republic during its time at the head of the European Council of Ministers:
“We will also have the end of the European parliament. This means that not only will the legislative period have to be shortened, but we will also have European elections, which means that there will be a political campaign everywhere in Europe, including the Czech Republic.
“The third issue is that the European Commission will be coming to the end of its tenure. Some of the commissioners will be looking for new jobs and they will perhaps start leaving the commission.
“All of this could have a destabilising effect. Consequently, in this sense, I think if we play our role correctly and say the right words at the right times, this would already be sufficient.”
“Managing these several thousand meetings, ensuring business is done, adopting some norms, and solving some small-scale crises – not the big ones that could emerge during the Czech presidency – I think this would be a good performance. For a first-timer like the Czech Republic, this is quite a good performance. There would be quite reasonable approbation for this. So I think it would be ok.”
