News

25. 4. 201316:07

Prime Minister Nečas and European Council President Van Rompuy started the first conference of the National Forum on the Future of the EU

The inaugural conference of the National Forum on the Future of the European Union took place on Thursday April 25, 2013, with full public participation and involvement of the media, in the plenary session hall of the Chamber of Deputies. Its aim was to articulate political visions of the future development of the European Union with special regard to the reform measures currently under preparation for the eurozone. As a follow-up to this conference, during which representatives of the government parties and the opposition spoke, there are planned expert round tables dealing with specific current topics, beginning with the issue of institutional reform, including the development of the Economic and Monetary Union and instruments for revival of the Single Market.

In a completely full hall, Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas firstly set out his vision of flexible European cooperation based on shared institutions and a functioning Internal Market. This was built on by the European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who noted out the importance of the Czech accent on the spread of freedom in Europe.

The first conference panel, opened by a contribution from European Commissioner Štefan Füle, was devoted to Czech national interests and their promotion at the Union level. On this panel, the views of Senate Deputy Speaker Alena Gajdůšková, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, MP Viktor Paggio and former Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra were presented. The follow-up discussion was also rich in content, with speeches from a number of Czech MEPs, including Oldřich Vlasák, Vice-President of the European Parliament.

The second conference panel, opening with a speech by the Governor of the Czech National Bank Miroslav Singer, dealt with the reform measures currently under preparation in the eurozone, and was an open exchange of view between leading representatives of the strongest parliamentary political parties. Chairman of Social Democrats Bohuslav Sobotka, and Civic Democrats´ and TOP09 Deputy Chairmen Pavel Blažek and Jaromír Drábek all presented their contributions. The need to keep to agreed rules and the adoption of new measures that follow the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity were emphasised in closing remarks by Minister and Chairman of the Government’s Legislative Council Petr Mlsna. A summary of the conference together with a number of thought-provoking points for further consideration were then formulated by Jan Bauer, Chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.