Policy Paper | 2022 Czech Presidency: A Surprising Success

The second-ever Czech presidency of the EU Council took place in the second half of 2022, a period in which the EU was under considerable pressure following the Russian invasion in Ukraine. What many predicted would be another regular presidency, became half a year of crisis management. Writes Vít Havelka in his Policy Paper called: 2022 Czech Presidency: A Surprising Success.

In order to analyse the success of a presidency, its role on two levels must first be recognised. The first level, the political, consists of a written presidency programme establishing a narrative of the presidency, what the leading country aims to achieve, and how it understands European integration. The second level is the European legislative process as such. The primary goal of each presidency is to facilitate negotiations and close as much new legislation as possible. It is important to mention that space for manoeuvring is significantly constrained by the logic of the EU’s legislative process, including the exact time within the legislative term of the EP and Commission. Thus, the first presidencies usually try to initiate negotiation processes, while those presidencies at the end of the legislative term aim to finalize discussions. The Czech Republic held its rotating presidency during the second half of the current legislative period, and thus its role was rather not to begin new negotiations, but to push forward already existing legislative proposals.

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The Paper was also published under the EPIN European Policy Institut Network

Vít Havelka
Senior Research Fellow

Expertise: EU institutional relations with member states, europeisation, transformation role of EU