ČT24 | European Parliament Elected Committee Leadership, Including a Czech Chair

Veronika Vrecionová was elected as the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Luděk Niedermayer as the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Does this signify a strengthening or weakening of the Czech position? In which committees will the Czech MEPs be active? How significant is the "cordon sanitaire" of the Patriots for Europe political group? And isn't this isolation of the Patriots for Europe a limitation of democracy? Viktor Daněk, Deputy Director of EUROPEUM Institute, discusses this topic in an interview for ČT24.

The fact that the Patriots for Europe did not secure any positions in the leadership of the Parliament or in the committees is just the beginning. The "cordon sanitaire" then manifests in the legislation by the fact that very often, or practically always, the members of Parliament who are isolated, which in the previous term was the far-right, whenever they came up with any amendment proposal, no matter how reasonable, the others would not discuss it at all. They refused to engage with the far-right, to draw them into influence, in order to avoid increasing their legitimacy.

You can watch the entire interview here.

Viktor Daněk
Deputy Director

Before entering the NGO sphere, Viktor Daněk worked for almost ten years as a journalist. During his time with the public service Czech radio, he focused mainly on covering EU affairs. He spent almost five years as a permanent correspondent in Brussels, where he cooperated with other media outlets. Before his career in journalism, he gained experience in the area of marketing and communication in the Česká spořitelna banking group and at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He holds university degrees in Media Studies and International Relations. Viktor Daněk joined the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy in October 2023. He continues to be active in the media as a freelancer. His main areas of interest are institutional questions of European integration, globalisation and the EU’s climate and migration policy.