Press Advisories

4. 3. 201721:51

The European Council will address the issue of migration, defence cooperation and support for economic policies

The European Council meeting will address three main topics, the latest developments relating to migration, cooperation on defence and support for economic growth and competitiveness. The election of the President of the European Council will also be on the agenda. As usual the Czech Republic will be represented at the European Council meeting by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. In his more than three years as Prime Minister, he has never missed a European Council meeting, and will again be present next week to defend Czech interests.

The European Council meeting will be held in Brussels on Thursday 9 March 2017 to adopt the Council conclusions, and Prime Minister Sobotka will be present throughout. The informal session, the EU27 summit, will be held on Friday 10 March. Prime Minister has requested that he be represented by the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, for this part of the proceedings. It is standard practice to opt to appoint a representative and this is a common procedure.

The reason Prime Minister is unable to attend the informal part of the summit is the long-planned meeting of the strongest Government party, the Social Democrats, where Prime Minister Sobotka is a candidate for party chairman and is therefore required to be present.