Biden at the EU summit in Prague is a good idea, but there are obstacles in the way iROZHLAS
At the beginning of its presidency of the European Union in July, the Czech government was happy to organize an EU summit in Prague, which was attended by US President Joe Biden. According to various reports, Czech diplomats have already addressed the American side, trying to take advantage of the fact that Biden will attend the North Atlantic Alliance summit in Madrid at the end of June.
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If this initiative is successful, our country would start its presidencies in style. Biden’s eventual participation in the EU summit in Prague would not only be a ceremonial affair that would draw attention to Prague for a while, but an important step towards uniting the somewhat divided Western community.
Jiří Pehe: Biden at the EU summit in Prague is a good idea, but there are obstacles in the way
The focus of US foreign policy has shifted in recent years to China, which it considers to be its main economic and security competitor. This will certainly not change, but it should not be at the expense of transatlantic ties.
Biden has already tried to repair the greatest damage done by his predecessor, Donald Trump, in Euro-American relations. He made two trips to Europe last year, but the West still has a somewhat dismal effect.
The Czech president as an obstacle
Although a now aggressive Russian policy on the border with Ukraine and a real test of Western unity would be a possible Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Biden’s possible participation in the EU summit in Prague would show that the United States and Europe they want to continue to work closely not only in the military field.
The Czech Republic has no major topic for its EU presidency yet. Her past migration policy, which she wants to make one of the main themes of President Emmanuel Macron’s French EU presidency, makes her unbelievable in this field. The skeptical attitudes of the Czech political scene towards the European green divide will hardly enable our country to be a leader in this area.
And unfortunately, our country will not have a strong weight in the case of EU reform, which concerns the economy and European integration. The Czech Republic is not a member of the euro area. And he has vague ideas about what the EU should be like in the future.
An attempt to restore battered transatlantic cooperation would therefore be perhaps the most promising card for the Czech Presidency. But there are obstacles here too.
The main one is the Czech president. These are the times when President Václav Havel could successfully invite world leaders to Prague. At the Castle, the president is now wearing an anti-Western stance, who in many ways acts as a mouthpiece for Russian and Chinese interests.
At the same time, Miloš Zeman had to play much more than a ceremonial role when visiting his American presidential counterpart. The question is whether Biden would like to be associated with a politician who proudly described himself as the Czech Trump a few years ago and who has so far weakened rather than strengthened its alliances with the West.
An initiative that could be a great success for our EU presidency at the outset may fail. However, the current government, like the one before it, is to some extent to blame. The president, who has long been opposed to the essential interests of Czech foreign policy, can never be referred to the appropriate limits, nor does he even talk about a possible removal from office.
The author works at New York University Prague
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