Paris, 3 December 2008 – The Czech Republic is “ready” to take up, as of next January, the rotating EU presidency and all that it entails, Mr Pavel Fischer, the Czech Ambassador to France, assured the Assembly on Wednesday.

As regards the ESDP, a joint programme has been drawn up by three successive EU presidencies (France, the Czech Republic and Sweden). “We feel ready, committed and responsible” he declared.

Representing the Czech Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Karel Schwartzenberg, the Ambassador said that the Czech Presidency, following that of France and preceding Sweden’s, would strive to consolidate a framework for coherent action despite differences that existed between the three countries. The Ambassador saluted the work of the French Presidency which had “injected new life into the European project, at the same time as opening a new chapter in EU-United States cooperation”.

Ambassador Fischer noted that in the area of the ESDP “demand is greater than our possibilities” and “the financial crisis will put pressure on public budgets and defence budgets in particular”. He nevertheless assured that the Czech Republic would not block any process, for procedural or other reasons, that might enable the ESDP to progress.

In his view, the campaign for elections to the European Parliament next June – “a key date to breathe new life into the European project” – would feature large in the Czech Presidency.

In response to several questions about the declared anti-European stance of the Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the Ambassador was reassuring. Recalling that the President “represents the Republic abroad”, he drew attention to the “very lively political debate” on Europe currently taking place in Prague. “I have every confidence”, he added “that next weekend the leadership of the (pro-European) Prime Minister will be confirmed and that our country will be more at liberty to start managing European affairs”.