Live: The informal EU summit is to be held in Prague on October 6 and 7, announced Fiala and Michel
Updates: 06/30/2022 19:54
Released: 30.06.2022, 00:23
Prague – An informal summit of the European Union took place in Prague in October, the Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) announced after tonight’s meeting with the President of the European Council Charles Michel. According to Michel, the summit will take place on October 6 and 7. The topic is to be the European Union’s wider cooperation with the new states.
The concept of a wider Europe proposed by France is intended to be open in particular to countries that apply for EU membership and offers them opportunities for closer cooperation. However, it should not be a substitute for the admission process.
Fiala said in mid-June, after meeting with European Parliament President Robert Metsola, that the summit could be about Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction. He wished that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could attend the meeting.
For the second half of the year, the European Council has its own calendar two summits are scheduled for 20 and 21 October and for 15 and 16 December. At the last summit last week, the people of the EU countries approved the candidacy of Ukraine and Moldova.
Preparations for the EU presidency culminate in Brussels, and the surroundings of the institutions are decorated with Czech motifs
The day before the official opening of the Czech Presidency of the European Union, preparations for political and cultural events ended in Brussels. Today, the surroundings of the headquarters of the EU institutions were decorated with artistically rendered banners with colors from the Czech and European flags and photographs of interesting places in the Czech Republic. The Czech diplomatic missions to the EU have received their last reinforcements, and according to Ambassador Edita Hrdá, it is time to prepare for more than two years to prepare and stand at the center of EU affairs.
“Now there is something like nervousness before the start, like in a big race. So I’m looking forward to it all starting,” an experienced diplomat told ČTK, who will lead a team of more than two hundred members of the Permanent Representation, which has almost doubled compared to normal traffic. It is up to Czech diplomats and experts to prepare and negotiate proposals for new EU standards or further joint action against Russia and assistance to Ukraine.
The Czechia is taking over the EU leadership from France. Although the presidency will not formally begin until midnight on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron has already symbolically handed over the role of Prime Minister to Petr Fial today on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid. “We still have a lot of work to do,” said Macron, who wished the Czech government a lot of courage. Fiala praised the French performance in leading the EU, which fundamentally reflected the beginning of the war in Ukraine. At the same time, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský received a symbolic relay pin in European colors from his French colleague Catherine Colonna in Madrid. France is passing on to the Czech Republic “a stronger, more sovereign and, I think, more united”, the ministry said.
While the main Ukrainian theme of the presidency will not change even after the rotation of the countries, the difference will be, for example, in the staffing or the number of accompanying events. The budget of the Czech presidency will be about a third lower than in 2009, when the Czechia led the union for the first time. Also due to savings, Prague withdrew from the original intention to buy a new building for its representation in Brussels and leased part of the second office building next to the permanent seat in addition to the permanent seat in the neighborhood of the European Parliament. Despite the fact that the Czechia has less than half of the five hundred diplomats that France had at the presidency at its disposal in Brussels, with the Czech half-year at the head of twenty-seven countries, there are high expectations in the metropolis of EU institutions.
“Of course they ask about Ukraine. They want to know how we will behave in various situations. Often the Czech masters improvise, so we are ready to react to unexpected events,” Proudly described the expectations of diplomats from other countries.
However, the Czechia wants to be visible in Brussels in the next six months in a way other than the direction of EU policy. The official opening events will not be run on Saturday after the legendary athlete Emil Zátopek, but today the streets of Brussels and the open spaces have been filled with Czech motifs.
An exhibition of photographs presenting the architectural monuments and interesting places of the Czech Republic began right in front of the European Commission. According to the vice-chairwoman of the commission, Věra Jourová, the organization of exhibitions of sixty photos was an effort to get more awareness of the Czech Republic to Brussels.
“This is also the task of the Czech Presidency – to get more of the Czech Republic to Europe, in its leadership and decision-making,” Jourová told ČTK.
In the immediate vicinity of the commission, in a rainy Brussels afternoon, banners made by Czech and European artists came up over several streets, inventing new variations on the traditional Czech and European symbol. “One of those battalions did not turn out well in the press, so he arrived especially a day later, which worried us,” said Jitka Pánek Jurková, director of the Czech Center Brussels, who supervised the installation of works of art on cables stretched high above the surrounding streets. Union institutions. The installation will fly over the heads of Brussels residents and visitors until the end of July.