Press Review
The EU summit in Copenhagen dominates all of today's front pages. "Expansion has turned into a battle over funding" reads the lead headline in Mlada Fronta Dnes. "The EU's message: take it or leave it" says Lidove Noviny. "Farmers block EU border crossings in protest of bad deal" writes Pravo.
The EU summit in Copenhagen dominates all of today's front pages. "Expansion has turned into a battle over funding" reads the lead headline in Mlada Fronta Dnes. "The EU's message: take it or leave it" says Lidove Noviny. "Farmers block EU border crossings in protest of bad deal" writes Pravo.
Has the Czech negotiating team done enough to defend the country's interests - that is the question at the centre of media interest. Mlada Fronta Dnes notes that the Czechs are still fighting - and delegates have taken several spare shirts to the Copenhagen summit. Lidove Noviny thinks that the Czech team has done a good job and that it is important to keep matters in perspective: long term the advantages will outweigh the disadvantages. In any case there is clearly no alternative to EU membership, the paper writes.
Harping on that may have been our main tactical error, notes Mlada Fronta Dnes. The Czech government repeated over and over that there was no alternative to EU entry, unwittingly undermining the position of our negotiators in Brussels. That is not the best starting point for negotiation and, as a result, the country looks set to receive the lowest EU funding of all the candidate states.
This is not due to our "enviable" economic standing, the paper says. Slovenia which is economically more advanced will get 30% more aid and Hungary, which is on par with the Czech Republic but has been far more vocal in defending its interests, will get twice as much. Such is the price of servility, the paper notes.
Having said that, the paper gives the EU credit where credit is due. Without pressure from Brussels the Czech transformation process would have taken much longer, it notes, and although the first ten years may be tough the country will achieve prosperity in the long run.
The papers all comment on the fact that ,as the Czech Republic stands on the brink of a new era, two politicians who symbolized the country's transformation are about to come off stage. Pravo notes that President Havel's presence at the Copenhagen summit is his last big social event in office, and Vaclav Klaus, the father of the Czech economic reform, is about to step down as party leader.
President Havel has come under increasing criticism at home - and today's front page report in Lidove Noviny entitled "Another dubious presidential pardon" is a prime example of this. Vaclav Klaus, who ruled his party with an iron hand, is likewise no longer "off limits to critics" the paper says. The outgoing leader has been publicly criticized in an unprecedented way by three candidates who would like to replace him.
And the words of criticism are harsh. Mr. Klaus has been accused of letting the wheels of the party rust, of losing touch with reality and putting off party sympathizers, especially intellectuals. The Klaus era is over, says Lidove Noviny, and that is encouraging news, both for the party and for right-wing politics.
