Czech ambassador: Sino-Czech co-op focuses on trade, environment

By Mike Peters (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-11-18 19:57

Recently the Czech Republic became the last country to approve the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. As a diplomat who has been assigned to the EU in the past, can you tell us about the next steps for implementing the treaty?

First, I am glad that we have passed this quite difficult moment, but I don’t exaggerate the importance of this. The EU is in the process of a permanent evolution – the recent history is one new treaty after another. All the time we see things that need to be improved as the EU grows and develops.

We will have a new structure, but some things still have to be resolved. We will have a new president position for the European Council, that is true, but according to our opinion, this is a president of only one institution, and that is the European Council – not of the European Union. There is a difference. In the understanding of others, this could be a president of the EU, but this is a difficult concept for us [because of various sovereignty issues]. Now the European Council is quite an important body … and the president of the council as well as the new high representative for external affairs will represent the EU abroad. But what then will be the role of the rotating presidency country of the EU, which will still remain in Europe. Sweden currently holds the presidency and Spain will be next, and Spain will probably have the responsibility of implementing the Lisbon Treaty. Some things are well-defined by the treaty and other things still have to be defined. Meanwhile, there is an important meeting this week that will determine who will hold the two new posts of president and high representative for external affairs.

Finally, the Czech Republic (and Slovakia) celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution on Nov 17.

Yes, this is an important occasion for us, 20 years of a new era of the Czech democratic state. For us it is emotional and full of changes. We have become a member of NATO and the European Union, and we are proud to have become a full-fledged member of the family of democratic states in Europe. It is something of a return to what Czechoslovakia was before, so the cycle was completed in that sense. We are also much more responsible in external affairs and international relations. For example, during the Czech presidency of the EU in the first half of this year, we have established a nuclear forum gathering academics and policy makers once a year to speak about advantages and possibilities in the nuclear sector and have this debate.

China is changing and we have changed, and so that is part of our dialogue. We are on different paths, but I think there are many things we have in common. We have the basis for developing economic relations and our new focus on the environment. We are still countries with different values and systems, but according to my view this is not an obstacle. With more dialogue we can better understand each other, integrate our processes. We are not here to give any lessons to anybody, but we can exchange our views and our achievements and be an inspiration to each other.

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