The European Dimension of the Czech Foreign Policy
The European Dimension of the Czech Foreign Policy

Author(s): Mats Braun, Vít Beneš
Subject(s): Constitutional Law, Political history, Government/Political systems, International relations/trade, Political behavior, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů
Keywords: Czech Foreign Policy; European integration process; EU; The Lisbon Treaty;
Summary/Abstract: During the years 2007–2009 the European integration process has had a big impact on the political agenda of the Czech Republic. The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2009 provided the country with an administrative challenge as well as an opportunity to make the country visible within the EU. The presidency had an impact on the way European policy is handled within the Czech administration and was also a topic that attracted public interest to European affairs. The preparations for the presidency led to an upgrading of the work of the Committee for the EU, which is the body under the Czech government that set the long term priorities for the Czech work within the EU even if the Czech Republic has not presented a new strategic document concerning the long term orientation of the Czech Republic within the EU since 2004, when such a document was accepted by the then Social Democrat led coalition government. The governments in office have regularly presented their long-term positions on various fields of the integration process – i.e. the Europe 2020 strategy, EU budget reform, reforms of the common agricultural policy, etc. The increased importance of the European agenda can also be seen on the ever more frequent meetings of the Committee for the EU – a trend that was maintained even after the end of the presidency.

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