Research report by the Institute of Public Affairs Warsaw
Introduction
The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU has, since the very beginning, attracted negative comments, especially in the “old” member states. A “new” rather small member state, which has not yet ratified the Lisbon Treaty, was under close scrutiny of the more experienced and influential partners in the Community. The deepening financial crisis and the volatile situation on the European stage as well as the new American administration getting into power, all that suggested that the time of the Czech Presidency would be full of new challenges.
That resulted in unequivocal signals coming from some European capitals, expressing concern that Prague might not be able to face up to the challenge. Some had predicted a failure of the Presidency even before it started. At the very beginning of the Presidency, it appeared that, apart from the already adopted priorities, some other important and unforeseen events moved to the top of the agenda. The Russian-Ukrainian dispute and the conflict in the Gaza Strip required immediate response from the Czech Republic as the representative of the whole European Union. At the same time, in the Czech Republic itself, efficient EU activity was hindered not only by the Euro sceptical president Vaclav Klaus. The internal government crisis which led to the collapse of Mirek Topolanek’s cabinet in the middle of the Czech Presidency, effectively blocked Prague’s functioning as the EU external representative and as the party initiating internal EU agreements.
While evaluating the achievements of the Czech Presidency, it is therefore necessary to take into account a number of factors. Both the preparation of the Czechs to the Presidency, the adopted priorities and their implementation as well as the unexpected challenges and the way they have been dealt with, all that needs to be considered. A question should also be asked, how the activities of the Czech Republic and their assessment in Europe have been affected by the fact that it is a small country and that it has been their first Presidency of the EU.
Have the “old” member states been ready to relinquish their “power” to the Czechs? Or perhaps their example has led to generalization of the assessment and creation of a general image of all states that acceded to the European Union in 2004 and 2007?
Answering these questions is necessary to draw conclusions useful for the Polish preparations for the Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2011. While formulating the recommendations for the Polish administration, it is therefore necessary to look closely into the preparation of the Czech Republic to the Presidency, into the implementation of their priorities as well as the organization and promotion of their activities.
This paper has been prepared on the basis of analysing the existing sources, including documents and press articles as well as interviews with Polish government administration officials, representatives of the third sector, experts and journalists (total of 18 interviews, including: 4 interviews with experts, 12 with public administration officials). The statements and assessments presented below arise from the conclusions drawn from the interviews and the analysis of the written material. Therefore they are not only the opinions of the Institute of Public Affairs but they also represent the position of a group of Polish experts. Whenever our interlocutors significantly differed in their views, those differences have been highlighted in the text.
At this point, we wish to express sincere thanks to all those people who devoted their time to talk to us and thus contributed to the value of this report. We also wish to thank the Heinrich Böll Foundation, with which we cooperated on this project.
The full report can be downloaded here in pdf.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The adopted priority tasks and their implementation
Internal situation – a government crisis in the middle of the Presidency
Expected and unexpected challenges in external relations
Small and new – a double challenge
Effectiveness of promotion
Social partners – the role of the third sector during the Czech Presidency
Czech Presidency and the Polish cause
Summary – the Polish perspective