Council of the EU

This year, the EU has not declared the regime in Belarus authoritarian. Hungary vetoed such a decision. Budapest has thus found a new element in this short EU tradition - a communiqué on the anniversary of the electoral fraud committed by Alexander Lukashenko in 2020 - to clash with Brussels. Kristína Chebáková, project manager at EUROPEUM Institute, commented on the situation related to the Hungarian EU presidency for the Spanish daily El País.

The European Commission has announced that, in light of developments since the beginning of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union, it plans to boycott informal ministerial meetings and send only senior officials instead of commissioners. Viktor Orbán has come under criticism for his recent trip to Russia, which he described as a peace mission aimed at ending the war in Ukraine and which he did not consult with the leaders of other EU states. This move comments Viktor Daněk, deputy director of EUROPEUM Institute for Czech Radio.

Eighteen years after joining the European Union, the Czech Republic assumes the Presidency of the Council of the EU for the second time. Our Senior Research Fellows Vít Havelka and Kateřina Davidová commented for an article in Deník N on the role of the presidency, which in Havelka's opinion can be divided into two parts, namely legislative and political.

Michal Hrubý, our Research Fellow, commented on the topic of the Czech EU Presidency in an article for the news server E15 in which he addresses the issue of gas from Russia. The article also compares the situation with 2009, when the Czech Republic held the EU Council Presidency for the first time.

Our senior research fellow, Vít Havelka, wrote OUTLOOK: 2022 Czech EU Council Presidency, which is mentioned in the article of Hospodářské noviny on the Czech EU Council Presidency.

Our research fellow Vít Havelka commented for Seznam Zprávy on the results of a study on voting in the Council of the EU, which focused on cooperation in voting by individual member states within various groupings such as the Visegrad Four, Benelux and others.

Summary and recommendations based on the discussion of National Convention on EU Affairs, which took place on 18 September 2020, regarding the priorities of the upcoming Czech presidency in the Council of the EU 2022, are now available. They were prepared by Zuzana Kasáková, Vladimír Bartovic and Vít Havelka from EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy.

The National Convention on EU Affairs will take place on September 18 online. The topic of the round table debate will be priorities of the Czech presidency of the Council of the EU.

Eurocentrum Prague is hosting an event on Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU which will be held on November 22nd in the European House.

On January 1, Michal Vít was a guest of the Studio ČT24 program, where he commented on the Slovak presidency of the Council of the EU, its successes and failures as well as expectations from the following Maltese presidency.

Vladimír Bartovic shared his views on the last six months of the Slovak presidency of the Council of the EU during the Sobotné dialógy programme of Rádio Slovensko (RTVS).

EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy director, Vladimír Bartovic, commented on forthcoming Slovak presidency in the Council of the EU.