A joint press statement of Bavarian Prime Minister Söder and Czech Prime Minister Babiš

Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder met with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš: “Relations between Bavaria and the Czech Republic have been very close and based on mutual trust for years. We would like to develop the friendship between our countries in the spirit of good neighbourliness and strengthen our relationship with emphasis on a common future.”

In the talk between Prime Minister Markus Söder and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on the margin of the Bayreuth Music Festival, good neighbour relations between Czechia and Bavaria and inside the European Union were in the centre of attention.

“We appreciate the positive developments that Czech-Bavarian relations have gone through in the past years. Our cooperation is on a high level and we want to do everything in future to make this trend continue. As good neighbours, we have a dialogue and cooperate in the atmosphere of mutual trust. As regards challenges at the European level, also here we opt for a dialogue and strive for a unified approach,” Söder and Babiš agreed.

They also talked about the following topics:

In the context of ensuring security and combating cross-border crime, both parties praised the good mutual police cooperation, exemplary of which a joint Centre of Czech-German Centre Police and Customs Cooperation in Petrovice and Schwandorf, operative since 2007.

As regards the topic of migration, they emphasized common positions related to the need of effective protection of the EU external boarders, consistent fights against trafficking crime, and the need to sensitively and sustainably improve the life perspectives for people in developing and transit countries.

Economic relationsof our countries have been developing mostly positively since the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union in 2004. The volume of Czech-Bavarian trade has more than doubled over that period, reaching a turnover of goods of 20.95 billion EUR in the new maximum in 2017. Prime Minister Markus Söder: “Czechia is the most important trading partner of Bavaria among the Central and Eastern European countries.”

Söder and Babiš also gave their opinions on the rail connection between Bavaria and Czechia:  “We will continue to strongly encourage the German Federal Government to prioritize and implement the urgently needed rail routes.”

Cooperation has also been very dynamically developing in the area of research, science and innovation.  “Scientific cooperation between Czechia and Bavaria is very intensive at the academic and institutional level, and it brings considerable potential for other bilateral projects. The Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency, founded in 2016, is a promise of further development of cooperation. Following on the success of the programme, we would like to continue with scientific and research cooperation and the 2014 joint agreement. The funds for the ‘Joint Call Czech Republic-Bavaria’ will therefore be significantly increased,” Söder informed.

Prime Minister Babiš: “The existing cooperation in the area of space research is an excellent basis for the development of Czech-Bavarian activities. We want to continue working on these technologies. We therefore agreed with Prime Minister Söder to set up a specialized working group to analyse the opportunities for cooperation in the area of Space Applications.”