Evaluation of the Czech EU policy in 2018

• According to public opinion polls, the Czech public is very skeptical about the Czech Republic´s ability to influence EU decision making. As anywhere in Europe, the EU is usually blamed for failures whereas successes are presented as something achieved despite the Union´s existence. There is also a deep-rooted belief that European law is adopted without participation of the EU member states, or that the voice of medium and small countries is silenced by the large states such as Germany and France. In general, the public debate concentrates on the shortcomings of the EU´s political system (usually without in-depth knowledge of its intrinsic workings) and, to much lesser extent, on the capability of Czech public service and politicians to define and successfully pursue Czech EU policy. The following paper reacts to this lack of discussion and sheds light on the successes and failures of the Czech EU policy in 2018 and comments on the changes that the public service has undergone in the last year. The text is divided into several sections, each covering one of the following dossiers: Czech Institutional Coordination, Single Market & Economic Policies, Justice and Home Affairs, Foreign and Defence Policy, and Outlook for 2019/20. The policy brief is based on the in-house expertise of the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, publicly accessible sources and semi-structured interviews with a dozen of Czech public servants. Finally, we do not strive to give an unbiased and hard-data-based commentary on the Czech EU policy. The following text should therefore be perceived as a subjective perception and interpretation of the Czech conduct based on our own expertise and inputs gathered in semi-structured interviews.

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