Press Advisories

28. 10. 200919:14

The Government of the Czech Republic Approved a Mandate of the European Council

At its extraordinary meeting of 28 October, the Government of the Czech Republic approved the mandate for the European Council meeting to be held in Brussels on 29 and 30 October.

The extraordinary cabinet meeting was also attended by the President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Miroslav Vlček, the President of the Senate Přemysl Sobotka, and the Chancellor of the President of the Czech Republic Jiří Weigl.

The main topics of the upcoming summit include, in particular, institutional issues, the preparation of the climate conference in Copenhagen, and progress on the issue of a financial oversight architecture in the EU. In Brussels, heads of state and governments will also address issues of energy security and international matters, such as the Union’s relationship to Afghanistan and Pakistan. All these main topics were at the centre of attention also during the Czech Presidency, in the first half of the year.

After the Government meeting, Prime Minister Jan Fischer noted that the Czech Republic is presently the last country that has yet to ratify the Lisbon Treaty and noted with appreciation that the Constitutional Court had already decided earlier to deliberate on this key issue in accelerated proceedings.

The Prime Minister stated that the Government reviewed the text of the exemption from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights requested by the country’s President, which the upcoming European Council will discuss. Jan Fischer again reiterated his conviction that the Lisbon Treaty would come into effect by the end of the year.

In addition to the institutional solutions referred to above, the European Council will discuss in detail primarily the negotiation of a common position of the Union for the December climate conference in Copenhagen which should lead to the replacement of the Kyoto agreement after 2012. Prime Minister Jan Fischer emphasised that the EU should go to Copenhagen with a strong mandate, because only that will help reach a global agreement. The agreement should ensure the effective involvement of the main actors on the global scale. On the other hand, it is no less important that agreement is also found about the sharing of the financial burden within the EU.

The European Council will also assess the progress achieved in the preparation of an oversight architecture over financial markets. The package that is in the works constitutes EU’s response to the crisis which broke out last autumn. The Member States have already agreed to the basic principles of the oversight architecture, in particular as concerns the so-called “macro-oversight”. As concerns “micro-oversight”, the European Union has the journey to finding agreement ahead of it. The Prime Minister emphasised, however, that in principle, the Czech Republic prefers quality to the speed of negotiations.

A number of other topics will be on the agenda of the Council meeting, such as the strategy of the development of the Baltic region, fight against illegal migration, energy security as well as foreign-policy areas, in particular Afghanistan and Pakistan.