Antwoorden van de Tsjechische premier Topolánek in een chat-sessie (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Tsjechisch voorzitterschap Europese Unie 1e helft 2009 i, gepubliceerd op dinsdag 5 mei 2009.

His role as the President of the European Council, President Klaus, priorities of the Czech Presidency and the Eastern Partnership project – these are among the topics of questions you posed to Mirek Topolánek i in the European chat.

  • Patrick, 4. 5. 2009, 18:09

Dear Mr. Topolanek, which position will you miss more: that of the Czech Prime Minister or that of leading the E.U. presidency?

The truth is that I really enjoyed performing the role of the President of the European Council, and I think I managed quite well against some negative expectations. The truth is however that in the role of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic I had more executive power. Personally, I will not miss either of these functions at least in the short term, and whether I will become Prime Minister again, well, it remains to be seen after the elections. Politics should not be about emotions as it is primarily a public service, in the first case it is a service for 10 million citizens, in the latter it involves 500 million people.

  • Vincent Lebert, 5. 5. 2009, 8:23

Dear Mr. Topolanek, are you satisfied with Mr. Klaus's performance yesterday at the EU-Japan summit? What can we expect from Mr. Klaus in the two remaining months of the Czech Presidency? Should we be afraid of his eurosceptic attitudes? Thank you.

Continuously and repeatedly, I have been mentioning that Vaclav Klaus is a professional politician who will have no problem to moderate a discussion on the level of a summit. His personal opinions do not play any role in it. By demonizing Klaus you have created your own problem, not ours. I believe that some EU politicians are more controversial than him.

  • Alena, 4. 5. 2009, 18:57

In your opinion, how have the “three E” priorities – Economy, Energy and Europe in the World – been fulfilled so far? Can the Czech Republic be proud of its achievements?

With respect to Energy we have succeeded in terms of our short-term objectives (e.g. solving the gas crisis), in our mid-term objectives (liberalisation package) as well as in our long-term objectives (energy security, the Southern Corridor). I strongly believe that energy security will remain one of the priorities in this field after the Czech Presidency is over. In the economy field it is evident that the implementation of recovery plans and prevention of protectionism as well as the preparation and presentation of the EU at the G20 and concrete solutions including 5 billion euros for infrastructure development, 50 billion euros for the Guarantee Fund of the European Commission and 75 billion euro for the International Monetary Fund are significant achievements. Regarding Europe in the world, the concrete political situation in individual regions was of consequence, more so than in case of the two other priorities. We can clearly see this in the Middle East, in the countries of the Eastern Partnership and elsewhere. However, the visit of President Obama to Prague, the promotion of the summit with China and the clearly defined funds in the Eastern Partnership are great achievements. Therefore I think that in these respects the Czech Presidency has certainly not failed.

  • Tomáš Karabela, 4. 5. 2009, 22:21

Dear Prime Minister, I would like to ask your opinion on two issues. First of all, how can the Eastern Partnership project help people who are held in prisons by dictator Lukashenko; and secondly, do you personally consider the recent unrest in the Moldovan capital as an expression of state tyranny or as inability of the defeated party to accept its defeat in election? Thank you and I wish you all the best. T.K.

All countries of the future Eastern Partnership project have their internal problems and we can only speculate as to how they are influenced by the proximity of their Eastern neighbour. The countries of the former Soviet Union are, and if we let them they will remain, in the sphere of influence of the Russian Federation: Ukraine and the gas crisis, Belarus and the Lukashenko regime, Moldova and the post-election situation + Transnistria, Georgia and the occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh. We have only two choices: either to let the countries deal with these problems or attempt to introduce a specific model of cooperation with the EU in the area of better administration, human rights and economic, social and visa-related cooperation. The Belarusian opposition itself welcomes the Eastern Partnership project – I have spoken repeatedly with its representatives in person. It is a question of a bigger or lesser evil.

Since this is the last chat in my role of the President of the European Council I would like to say good-bye to all of you. Thank you for your positive as well as critical feedback to this discussion. For me personally, it was a very interesting excercise. I might even miss it, and as everyone knows me I will definitely find my way to follow up on this discussion. I wish you all the best!

  • Further questions answered by the Prime Minister can be found in the relevant language versions of the chat - czech and english.