The Czech Republic and the European Union

Czechoslovakia´s wish to become a member of the European Communities (EC) was expressed in many ways. One of the first was the slogan on the election billboards of the revolutionary Civic Forum platform, “Back into Europe”. In December 1990, Czechoslovakia opened talks with the EC on the establishment of an Association Agreement. One year later, Czechoslovakia signed the Agreement, along with Hungary and Poland.

After the disintegration of Czechoslovakia, the European Communities suspended the ratification process. The Czech diplomacy, led by Foreign Minister Josef Zieleniec, exerted intensive efforts in order to make up for the time lost. As a result, in 1993 the two sides signed an agreement “establishing an association between the Czech Republic on the one side and the European Communities and their member states on the other side”. The agreement entered into force on 1 February 1995. Until then, the mutual relations were governed by a Provisional Agreement. At its meeting in Copenhagen in June 1993, the European Council decided that the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe so wishing could become members of the European Union. It was also established that the accession would take place as soon as the country concerned was in a position to accept all the membership obligations, was meeting the required economic and political conditions and had sufficient administrative and judicial capacity needed for the Adoption of the Acquis. At the meeting in Essen in December 1994, the European Council called upon the Commission to make a detailed analysis of the potential impacts of the eastern enlargement of the EU on the politics of the European Union and its future development. The internal report was submitted to the European Council at its session in Madrid in December 1995. The Council asked the Commission to prepare opinions on the individual membership applications as soon as possible after the closing of the intergovernmental conference and to start preparing a summary document on the course of the enlargement. On 17 January 1996, the Czech Republic filed its application for membership of the European Union through the Prime Minister of the Czech Government, Václav Klaus.

THE 1996-2004 PERIOD

In July 1997, the European Commission published its document – Agenda 2000 – in which it subscribed to the idea of a “stronger and larger union” and published Opinions on the preparedness of all candidate countries. The Commission also established that it would inform the European Council regularly about the progress the Central and East European countries had made in their preparations for membership. In its Opinion, the Commission recommended membership negotiations to be opened with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Slovenia, and Cyprus. In December 1977, at the summit in Luxembourg, the European Council entrusted the Commission with the preparation of Regular Reports on the progress made by the individual candidate states for membership. At its meeting in Luxembourg on 13 December 1997, on the recommendation of the Commission, the European Council decided to tender an official invitation to 11 candidate states to join the EU. For the Czech Republic, the invitation was taken over by President Václav Havel, accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaroslav Šedivý. The summit in Luxembourg further decided that bilateral intergovernmental conferences would be called in spring 1998, where accession talks with six states – Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia (known as the Luxembourg Group) – would be opened. The actual enlargement process was started at a meeting in Brussels on 30 March 1998, attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the EU15 and the 11 candidate states, including the Czech Republic. The legal framework was formulated in the Accession Partnership deed. In Brussels, the Czech Republic submitted its National Programme of Preparations for EU Membership, issued in succession in 1999, 2000, and 2001. The first part of the talks on the entry of the Czech Republic into the EU – known as the “screening”, i.e. analytical comparison of the legislation of the candidate countries with EU law – opened in Brussels in April 1998. Actual accession talks, at ministerial level, started in November 1998, after preliminary technical negotiations. For screening purposes, the ACQUIS was divided by areas into 31 chapters. Before the opening of each of the chapters, the European Commission proposed the adoption of a common negotiating position of the Union, which was approved by the Council and presented by the presiding country. All the candidate states, represented at the talks by their chief negotiator and his team, also prepared their positions on all 31 chapters. The head of the Czech negotiation team was Pavel Telička, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, appointed on 14 January 1998. His comment on the complicated and often very demanding negotiations, was: “The negotiations were unprecedented, in terms of their comprehensive character, factual content, technical complexity and political significance, hardly comparable with anything in our history to date. This is true despite the fact that the European Union significantly narrowed down our negotiation space and relatively largely defined the conditions.” The main negotiator of the European Commission was Klaus van der Pas, with Michael Leigh and, from the year 2000, with Rutger Wissels at the head of the negotiating

team assigned specifically for the Czech Republic. The process of preparations for membership was continuously monitored by the European Commission, which, starting in 1998, each year issued Regular Reports on the progress made by the candidate countries in their preparations for EU membership. The first evaluation Report of the Commission in 1998 was very critical, especially as regards state administration and the judiciary. The government made efforts to speed up the process of implementation and application of EU legislation. The second Report of the Commission of 1999 valued positively the adoption of the document, Economic Strategy of Entry into the European Union, the joint evaluation of the priorities of the country´s economic policy, the progress made in the liberalisation of the movement of capital and the adoption of basic rules for regional policy promotion. In spite of this, the final evaluation of the fulfilment of the Accession Partnership deed was unsatisfactory. Very critical, among other things, was the evaluation of the situation of the Romani population. In 2000, the Commission´s Report was much more favourable than the two previous evaluations. The evaluation of the accelerated process of harmonisation of the country´s legislation with EU law was especially favourable. The EU summit held in Nice from 7 to 11 December had on its programme the enlargement of the Union eastward and the general reform of the institutions. It was agreed that, after its entry into the EU, the Czech Republic would have 11 votes in the Council and 20 deputies in the European Parliament. Since the Czech Republic and Hungary are states of approximately the same size as Belgium, Portugal and Greece, but were assigned fewer seats in the EU Council and the European Parliament, this meant their discrimination. The 2001 Report evaluated the Czech Republic much more favourably, especially as regards the functioning of the market economy. A continuing problem was the situation of the Romani population and the state administration reform. In 2002, the “President Beneš Decrees” issue was on the agenda again. On the basis of its analysis, the Commission published a Report saying that, from the acquis point of view, the decrees were no obstacle to the Czech Republic´s accession. The last evaluation Report was issued on 5 November 2003 and was called “Summary Monitoring Report on the Ppreparations of the Czech Republic for Membership”. In its opinions, the Commission proposed to enlarge the EU by 10 countries as proposed in Laeken. The pre-accession process with 10 candidate states, including the Czech Republic, was terminated at the session of the European Council held in Copenhagen on 12-13 December 2002. There, all the chapters under negotiation, including the transitional periods, which gave the new member countries longer terms for the successful fulfilment of all their commitments resulting from EU membership, were closed. In keeping with the Commission´s position, the 10 new states were admitted on 1 May 2004. The accession of the Czech Republic to the EU was the outcome of the successful termination of accession talks, during which the conditions of the Czech Republic´s membership of the EU were discussed. On 1 May 2004, the European Union became a Community of 25 Member States. The number of official languages increased to 20.

CURRENT SITUATION

How do Czechs Influence European Politics?

The Czech Republic has its representatives in all the institutions of the European Union, where they often

hold very important positions, so that a large number of Czechs participate in making decisions on the longterm orientation and everyday politics of the EU. The Czech Republic appointed Věra Jourová as a member of the European Commission, in which she now holds the high position of Deputy Chairwoman, in charge of the portfolio called “Values and Transparency”.

Jourová Is One of the Most Influential Women in the EU

Věra Jourová is a member of the European Commission for the second term in succession. During her previous mandate in 2014-2019, she was in charge of the issues of Justice, Consumer Protection, and Equality between women and men. In that period, she managed to push through a number of steps, especially in the area of consumer policy, which make the lives of people in the EU easier and more pleasant. These include, for example, the cancellation of roaming charges and the simplification of cross-border shopping on the Internet. The Politico.eu server has repeatedly ranked Věra Jourová among the most influential women forming the EU. In 2017, she was even placed sixth on the list. No other member of the Commission has participated in so many political battles, according to the server. Jourová has solved a number of thorny subjects, such as data protection, terrorism on the Internet, the Dieselgate affair, double quality of food, protection of the rule of law and issues related to sexual harassment.

The Czech Prime Minister, Members of Parliament and Ministers Participate in EU Decision Making

The Czech Republic also plays an important role in the European Council, where the heads of state and governments of all the member countries meet and define the general orientation of the EU. Czech Ministers participate in the meetings of the Council of the European Union, where they hold debates with their counterparts on EU legislation. The Czech Republic has 21 deputies in the European Parliament. In respect of its population, the Czech Republic has a higher relative representation than the large states, such as Germany and France. Since the previous elections to the European Parliament in 2019, the posts of Vice-Chairmen of the European Parliament have been held by Czech deputies Dita Charanzová and Marcel Kolaja; before them, in 2017-2019, one of the Vice-Chairmen of the European Parliament was Pavel Telička. The Czech Republic also has its representatives in other EU institutions and agencies, e.g. the EU Court of Justice, the European Service for External Activities and the European Defence Agen-

Do you know that… three Czech writers have been awarded the EU Prize for Literature? They are: Bianca Bellová (2017) - award for her novel “The Lake” (Jezero) Jan Němec (2014) – award for the fictionalised biography of the famous Czech photographer, František Drtikol, titled “History of Light” (Dějiny světla) Tomáš Zmeškal (2011) - award for his first work, “Love Letter in Cuneiform” (Milostný dopis klínovým písmem) In 2009, Helena Třeštíková´s film “Miracle” (Zázrak) won the EU Prix MEDIA award, accorded within the framework of the Creative Europe programme. It was presented to her at the International Film Festival in Cannes. Prix EUROPA – UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE European Parliament, was awarded to: TV DOCUMENTARY 2015 – “Mallory”, Helena Třeštíková TV FICTION 2014 - “The Numbers Eight” (Osmy), Marek Epstein SPOT 2005 – “Home Sweet Home”, Jan Rendl

cy. Besides the main EU institutions, there are also advisory bodies, such as the European Committee of the Regions. In 2019, a Czech specialist, Petr Blížkovský, was elected its General Secretary. Czechs have 21 seats in the European Parliament, 14 of which are the seats of Vice-Chairmen. They represent 7 political groups. The Czech Republic also has its permanent representatives in Brussels. Edita Hrdá is a member of COREPER II, composed of ambassadors, and Jaroslav Zajíček of COOPER II, concerned with Agriculture and Research. Czechs and EU Agencies

Specialised EU agencies concern themselves with specific scientific and technical issues. The Czech Republic is the seat of the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency (GSA) and is to become a space centre. The presence of the Agency attracts know-how to the Czech Republic and stimulates the Czech space industry, which has a long tradition in this country. Czech firms participate in international projects, such as the manufacture of the Ariane 6 rocket, the latest in the series of space rockets launching satellites into orbit. The Czech Republic is also the first of the former eastern bloc countries to have built a space incubator, where new ideas are being developed.

Presidency 2022

The Czech Republic will assume its historically second chairmanship on 1 July 2022. This country first stood at the head of the EU in the first half of 2009. As in the previous term, it will form the presidential trio with France and Sweden. Presidency of the EU Council is one of the most important rights and most demanding tasks resulting from EU membership. The role of the presiding country is not only to organise, but also to mediate and handle political and representation tasks. Preparations for the forthcoming Czech presidency were started in July 2018. The preparations and the actual realisation of the Czech presidency in 2022 are taking place under the guidance of the Prime Minister, through the Section for European Affairs of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. Other institutions to participate in the presidency will be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as leader, and the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU. The coordinator will be the Committee for European Affairs. The domain of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic is www.eu2022.cz, where current information about the Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union will be published.