Press Advisories

30. 6. 202222:08

On the eve of the start of the Czech Republic's EU Presidency, Prime Minister Fiala welcomed the President of the European Council, Charles Michel

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala met with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, in Prague on Thursday, 30 June 2022. The main topics of the working dinner were the work plan of the European Council during the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU and the preparation of the informal summit to be held in Prague in October.

The upcoming Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union was an important topic of discussion at the working dinner at the Kramář’s Villa. The key priorities for the next six months will be the situation in Ukraine and the economy. Prime Minister Petr Fiala and European Council President Charles Michel agreed on the need to continue to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia and to prepare a plan for the reconstruction of the country.

"First of all, I would like to thank President Michel for coming to Prague just before the start of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU to exchange experiences, to prepare the programme and to encourage us. We've been meeting a lot in the last week. A week ago we were together at the European Council in Brussels, yesterday we met at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Madrid, and I do not mention this by accident. The honour [sic - frequency] of the meeting and the fact that European leaders are meeting, whether on the soil of the European Union or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, is an important signal and symbol of this time," Prime Minister Petr Fiala said.

"It means that we are facing huge challenges that we have to respond to, which are in the area of security, economy, energy. These are challenges that European countries have not faced for decades. And it is important for us to work together. That we also work together between the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union, that we work together as best we can within the European Union, and that we can always come out with a result that shows our unity and strength. This is a great task these days and I am convinced that it is also one of the tasks of the Czech Presidency," the Prime Minister said.

According to the Prime Minister, the economic situation of the citizens of the EU Member States and the availability of energy will also be a major challenge. "These are all things that we cannot even address in isolation, as individual European states. We need to find a common European solution, which means that we as the European Union will also have to strengthen our relations with other partners in order to deal with this situation," Prime Minister Fiala said.

Petr Fiala also discussed with Charles Michel the organisation of an extraordinary European Council in Prague in October.

They also discussed the concept of "Wider Europe", which aims to create an open platform for discussion with all democratically-minded European states. "This is a project we need to work on. The European Council, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, has entrusted us with this task and in the coming days we will look into how this could be organised," Petr Fiala said.

Prime Minister Fiala and European Council President Michel also discussed, for example, the issue of security and energy security and the EU's food self-sufficiency. "We simply have to find answers to the challenges facing Europe, which cannot be solved in a matter of years, but we have to find solutions to some issues now because our citizens are waiting for them," the Prime Minister added.