Prime Minister Babiš met with Centre Pompidou President and gave a speech at Sciences Po

On Monday, 12 November 2018, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš continued his three-day visit to Paris.

During his visit to the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Prime Minister saw the collections and talked with the director Serge Lasvignes, primarily on the cooperation between this prestigious art institution and the Czech National Gallery. The meeting was also attended by the General Director of the National Gallery Jiří Fajt. Prime Minister Babiš said that the Czech National Gallery is interested in obtaining the Centre Pompidou licence. “There is a plan of either a major renovation and investment in the National Gallery, or building a new one. But the discussion was mainly about mutual cooperation, the exchange of works of art that they have and which are incredible. All galleries of the world would like to cooperate with them, they already have cooperation with Malaga, Belgium, and are to cooperate with Shanghai and Korea. I invited the Director to Prague to show him everything on the spot. I think the meeting went very well, so I'm happy”, said Andrej Babiš.

After that, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš visited the university of Sciences Po, whose graduates include such personalities as Karel Kramář and Edvard Beneš. Sciences Po is one of the six founding members of the Paris Peace Forum. In his speech, the Prime Minister emphasized the value of the European Union, which brings peace and prosperity to all parts of the European continent. In recent years, however, the EU has faced a number of crises, such as the financial, economic as well as migration crisis and terrorist threats, which to some extent undermined the trust of citizens in the Union. In his speech he also reflected the topics from yesterday’s Paris Peace Conference. Then the Prime Minister spoke with the students. “I also spoke about the peace conference, about arms in the world, how the UN Security Council works, how much money is spent on arms and I talked about the planet as such, about climate change, of course migration and about Europe returning to the four freedoms, to the roots of the European Union”, added the Prime Minister in relation to the speech at Sciences Po.

In the morning, the Prime Minister also met with the CEO of Société Générale Frédéric Oudéa and the CEO of Électricité de France Jean-Bernard Lévy.

In the afternoon, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš headed to Palermo, Italy, where he will take attend a dinner with the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.