The Presidency lunch -
Friday 13 March 2009
at the Sussex Ox, Milton Street, near Alfriston
The Czech Presidency of the EU
The Czech Republic held the EU Presidency from January to June 2009. To
focus on this we were joined in a lunch by Zdeněk Kavan, who came at
very short notice, after the Czech Embassy in London faced an unexpected workload
following the death of the Ambassador few weeks earlier. He is a Lecturer in Development
Studies and International Relations at the University of Sussex. His research interests
have been nationalism, democracy and citizenship in Eastern and Central Europe, human
rights and issues of international legitimacy. He is co-author of one of the first
published studies of the Velvet Revolution.
|
|
Zdeněk
Kavan began by emphasising that he was in no way
speaking on behalf of the Czech government. He was an academic studying what politicians
and others do, not a policy maker. Nevertheless his focus was on the current problems that
the Czech Presidency of the EU and the Czech government faced.
The 20-year period since the Velvet Revolution had seen a shift from centralised to
democratic politics. There was a nostalgic concept of a “return to Europe” which had
been characteristic of this period. It was mostly a mythological sense of Czech identity,
emphasising “we are not like the Easterners”, and seeking a clear differentiation from
the Russians. This was to suggest that Communism was imposed on the Czechs.
Until 1989 it was conventional to speak of East versus West. Yet the Czech Republic
clearly sits in a central position in Europe, as does Hungary and Poland. They thus
claimed privileged access to western Europe, and of course to the EU. Yet western Europe
remains confused about “central” Europe. Where were the new boundaries, culturally or
ideologically? One analysis identifies the cultures embedded in Catholicism,
Protestantism and Orthodoxy.
In this first period after 1989 the Czechs tried to work out which foreigners they would
most prefer to work alongside. Obviously the least popular were the Russians. But the most
popular were the Americans and the Japanese (not their nearer neighbours the Germans). In
the second period the Germans became more popular, because they were commercially
successful. But there remained deep suspicions based on a fear that the Sudetan Germans
expelled after World War Two would return. In this period the most popular foreigners
became the Slovaks. The mood has now entered a third period, which derives from realising
that the EU is a tough master. Some populist anti-Europeanism has arisen, with its focus
on who does and who does not allow free movement of labour. In two years time the 7 year
delay in opening up the land market to foreigners comes to an end. The current europhobic
President Václav Klaus plays on the loss of sovereignty.
The current government has been an uneasy alliance without a majority in Parliament.
Václav Klaus founded the Civic Democrats (now the main party in government) and during
his time has pushed eurosceptic policies. Then in recent local elections the Social
Democrat opposition swept the board. An extraordinary national congress of the Civic
Democrats voted to expel the representatives of Václav Klaus.
The Czech EU Presidency has thus been weakened by the political impasse at home. It
remains the only EU country other than Ireland not to have endorsed the Lisbon Treaty. The
embarrassment of a euro-hostile President nominally representing the EU presidency has
boosted the case for an elected European Union president replacing the rotating
presidency.
From the first week of the Czech EU presidency the
ambiguity of Czech attitudes to Europe was illustrated by the extraordinary satirical
artwork placed in the lobby of the European Council building. Entropa could be
judged a major success if its conceptual artist set out to offend as many as possible. It
is right that Art should challenge Politics, but Entropa was taken as symbolic of
the Czech government’s contempt for its European partners. That would be an unfair
inference, in that the result of the commissioning of Entropa came as a great
surprise to the Czech government itself. Basically, they had been ‘conned’ by a
leading conceptual artist.
continued in right-hand column |
(continued
from column 1)
Questions
Who are the natural allies of the Czechs?
The Czechs tend to be friendly with neighbours of their immediate
neighbours. This can be seen with the problems Austria has with the Temelin nuclear power
plant on its border. Longer-standing problems in relations with Hungarians have been eased
by the separation of Slovakia, with its substantial ethnic Hungarian minority.
The emergence of the Visegrad Group, with the Czechs, Poles, Hungarians and Slovaks
seeking to work towards common EU policies has been significant. It could have had
stronger and earlier influence – the group could have jointly negotiated terms of EU
entry, but instead chose to make separate competitive applications. It is thus now forced
into a defensive role.
What has been the effect of the global financial crisis on the Czech Republic?
In central Europe it is clear that the Hungarians have been in the greatest
difficulty. Much of Czech banking is tied in with Austrian banks. There is nevertheless a
high risk of knock-on effects of toxic debt spreading into central Europe.
What will the Czechs decide about the Lisbon Treaty?
The current government has adopted a ‘weasel’ compromise – let’s
wait and see what the Irish decide. The lower house of Parliament has endorsed the treaty.
President Klaus and his supporters in the Senate have however embarked on delaying tactics
by referring parts of the Lisbon Treaty, almost paragraph by paragraph, to the
Constitutional Court. In its first ruling the Court decided there was no constitutional
conflict, but that has not closed the matter.
What level of public support is there for the EU?
There has always been fluctuating support in the opinion polls. But the
Czech presidency of the EU has resulted in increased positive attitudes to the EU.
In the new democratic politics why has the Communist Party, with the third
largest vote, been sidelined?
It is true that if allied with the Social Democrats there would be a left-of-centre
majority in Parliament. But analysis of communist voters shows that the support is largely
made up of losers in today’s society, for instance pensioners, and the young expressing
rebellion against their elders. It is difficult for the Social Democrats, although the
policies of the two left parties are quite close. Being “soft on communism” is the
fear. There is however a possibility of the Communists reaching a deal with the Social
Democrats, on supporting common policies, but without being in a government team. There is
nevertheless a growing nostalgia for the past, carrying the implication that life was then
more stable and easier to live.
Why has the Czech government been so low profile in its efforts to separate
President Klaus from the current EU presidency role?
Opinion polls show that Václav Klaus has quite high popular appeal. In surveys he comes
out far more trusted than either the government or Parliament. |
|