Over 40 presidents and prime ministers are heading to Prague. “The Czechia can be a leader in lower speed”
Prague is preparing to host a major European summit, where dozens of statesmen are expected to gather, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and British Prime Minister Liz Truss. The meeting, previously described as the first meeting of Europe’s new political “club of nations”, could help create a so-called two-speed Europe. According to political scientist Aleš Michal from the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, the summit will help the Czech Republic, which has the potential to become the leader of the slower Europe.
Due to the situation in the world, the topics of the Thursday and Friday meeting of the European Political Community in Prague will be security and peace, energy, climate and the economic situation. A new platform named European political community will meet for the first time ever. It is intended to serve for the political coordination of European countries, not only the member states of the European Union. French President Emmanuel Macron came up with the idea of creating a new group.
According to Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s spokesman Václav Smolka, it is an honor for the Czech Republic that Prague can host an event that has no season. “It’s important to us that we can create a space for people to come together in some kind of broader format and informally, so that the debate is more open. This could open the door to a joint approach to solving the problems facing us,” Smolka told the editors.
Two-speed Europe
Political scientist Michal believes that the summit in Prague is an event of global importance, but it can also inadvertently bring tangible benefits. “Bilateral negotiations will be important, but it will be with Qatar, for example, on gas replacements from Russia, so it may also have a practical impact,” he told Echo24.
Domestically, it can help the government defend how the European presidency works, and it is also important for President Miloš Zeman, he added. “We can also take it as his informal farewell.”
Before the time of Europe, Macron thought that the European political community could be a new force on the map, which contributed to the division of the continent into a faster and a slower current. According to Michal, it could also be realistic due to the fact that more and more tension is arising in the Visegrad Four. “For the faster part of the two-speed Europe, it would make sense in that the new member countries are closer to Ukraine, and that may be desirable,” he says.
And where does the Czech Republic belong? “Thanks to the alliance of Petr Fiala’s government with Poland, we are critical of the functioning of the V4 and thus have the potential to become a leader of a lower speed, which will cooperate well with the higher speed and connect the two worlds,” the political scientist thinks.
Over 40 presidents and prime ministers in Prague
44 countries were invited. In addition to the 27 EU members of the six countries of the Western Balkans – Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. It also concerns the countries of the associated trio Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, then Armenia and Azerbaijan, four countries from the European Free Trade Association, i.e. Norway, Switzerland and Iceland and Liechtenstein, as well as the United Kingdom and Turkey.
President Miloš Zeman is also participating, but he chose partners outside of the main pride. During the informal summit, he will meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Three days before the beginning of the meeting of the presidents and prime ministers of the European Union countries in Prague, it was not clear whether there would be any common outcome. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, submitted a draft written statement to the member states, but according to diplomatic sources, most states prefer the informal nature of the negotiations without a final communication. The decision should be made on Wednesday at a meeting of the ambassadors of the member countries in Brussels.