Press Advisories

5. 6. 2015 22:02

Prime Minister Sobotka in talks with the European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström

The Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka met on Friday 5 June 2015 with the European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström. The working lunch with the Commissioner was also attended by the Minister for Industry and Trade Mr Jan Mládek and the State Secretary for European Affairs Mr Tomáš Prouza.

The main theme of the talks was the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The aim of this treaty between the European Union and USA is to liberalize mutual trade and facilitate investor access to both American and European markets.

With regard to specific contents of this future treaty the Czech Republic’s main interest lies in facilitating access to American markets primarily to small and mid-sized enterprises, which do not have sufficient capacity to monitor the currently existing barriers and means to overcame them. Czech Republic is chiefly interested in strengthening regulatory cooperation, especially in automobile manufacturing industry, healthcare technologies, engineering sector and in pharmaceuticals. “Our interest is to strengthen trade with the USA, which will lead to new jobs and more contracts for Czech firms,” said the Prime Minister after the meeting.

TTIP was also a subject of the May meeting of the National Convention on the EU – which is an initiative facilitating discussion on current and important European issues. The meeting welcomed representatives of the state administration, politicians and NGOs as well as professional association and businessmen. The attendance at the May roundtable discussion meeting was one of the largest ever.

The today’s meeting with Cecilia Malmström followed onto previous meetings between the Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and other Commissioners. The Prime Minister formerly met with Vice President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič and Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner  in charge of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. In March, the Prime Minister met with Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels as well as with First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans. Corina Creţu, Commissioner for Regional Policy at the EC visited Prague for talks at the end of March / beginning of April. This meeting will be followed upon by visit of the Czech Commissioner Věra Jourová.

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