State to spend far less on hosting EU presidency in 2022 than last time

The Czech government is aiming to spend significantly less when it holds the European Union presidency in 2022 than when it last did so in 2009, iRozhlas.cz reported.

A draft state budget that ministries had until Monday to comment on envisages expenditures of CZK 1.2 billion on hosting the six-month presidency. That is around a third the outlay a decade ago and is considerably less than other countries typically spend.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš says he is seeking to make savings in the areas of investment costs and personnel.

However, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs could find that it has insufficient staff to handle the demands of hosting a large number of meetings, iRozhlas said.

Author: Ian Willoughby