"The motto especially refers to the walls erected for the work force coming from the new EU member states and administrative obstacles and commercial relations with countries outside the EU," said Milena Vicenova, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the EU on the occasion of the Czech presidency website and logo presentation.
According to her, the Czech Republic will also put an emphasis on initiatives and laws that France during its presidency has not been able to pass. Although the official Prague "understands" set of measures for European economic recovery that was presented last week by the European Commission, the Ambassador Vicenova says the Czech Republic "does not want to return to protectionism and excessive interference of the state in every sphere."
This announcement means great switch in relation to the policy of France, holding the current EU presidency, as well as the French president Nicolas Sarcozy who has strongly supported states` intervention in solving economic crisis. In spite of the fact that he belongs to the right ideological spectrum politicians, Sarcosy has hailed governments` intervention in maintaining economies` solvency, something the Czech Republic abhors.
However, influential lobbyists in Brussels have already been making estimations on their blogs that the Czech EU presidency will show weakness in solving energy and environmental issues, as well as stating that this will also be contributed by the fragile ruling coalition in Prague. Lobbyists estimate that some new EU members hope the Czech presidency, unlike the French and Swedish ones, will be more inclined to their opposition to several EU proposed regulations that refer to climate changes and emission of carbon dioxide reduction.
It has been estimated that the Czechs would order the Commission to make an analysis on new set of climate regulations that would give clear answers to potential growth of electricity prices caused by those regulations. Furthermore, lobbyists maintain that the official Prague will let the member states concerned about energy dependence on Russia, such as Poland, their complaints be heard more in the Council debates.
Moreover, lobbyists engaged in energy and environment consider some member countries trust the Czechs will delay the decision making process when these issues are in question until autumn 2009. At that time, in accordance with the European elections results, new session of the European Parliament and European Commission will be known.
In favour of these estimations is also the statement of the Ambassador Vicenova that she hopes current French EU presidency will solve the most important problems regarding climate change and energy at the December summit since those are issues the Czechs have little understanding for.
Namely, even 60 percent of the Czech citizens use coal for heating and therefore the Czechs have decided to reject the plan for using the electricity only that was being prepared in Brussels for some time now. According to the Ambassador Vicenova, adoption of this regulation would make electricity more expensive in the Czech Republic than in France or Belgium.
In relation to the French EU presidency, the Czech presidency will be different to certain extent regarding foreign policy since Prague as key priorities within foreign relations has not included cooperation with Russia as an important and, finally, inevitable partner in political, security, and economic spheres.
On the other hand, the Czech Republic is looking forward to cooperation with Obama`s administration and the EU-USA Summit that will be held in Prague at the end of spring 2009. According to Vicenova, transatlantic cooperation is important not only in political and economic perspectives but also in view of the forthcoming UN Conference on climate changes that is planned for November 2009. As one of the Czech foreign affairs priorities mentioned is also enlargement of economic relations with Canada, having in mind that Ottawa is hopping for establishing a free trade agreement with the EU.
Beside the transatlantic relations, foreign affairs goals of the Czech presidency are also the process of the Union enlargement towards the Western Balkans as well as the Eastern partnership. According to Hana Hubackova, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Belgrade, the progress of the Western Balkans stabilisation and association process to the EU is "firmly rooted" in the priorities of the Czech presidency.
"Maybe during our presidency there will be several candidacies for membership and we might start procedures for considering those applications but all this also depends on progress the Western Balkans countries would achieve. Serbia has administrative capacities for moving forward towards the EU joining," said Hubackova and added that she hoped Serbia would fulfil condition regarding The Hague Tribunal cooperation since in that case there would be possibility of "speeded status acquiring for the EU membership candidate."
The Ambassador has taken the advantage of addressing the European Integration Committee and invited parliamentarians to adopt as soon as possible the laws necessary for abolishing the EU visas since the possibility for Serbia to come to the "white Schengen list" depends on several technical conditions that have to be fulfilled.
However, for the Czechs important is the foreign policy priority and Eastern partnership, i.e., closer cooperation but without promises on the EU membership for the East-European countries. This partnership refers to Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and depending on political situation, on Belarus, too. According to the announcements made from Prague, the Eastern Partnership Summit, where all the Union members and these six countries will take place, will commence right after the spring European Council session.
* Nenad Radicevic is a foreign affairs journalist with Politika daily. CEV magazine is an online publication of the Centre for European Values
