EU presidency

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took over the EU Council presidency less than a month ago, but he has already managed to provoke the EU institutions and most member states with his unauthorized "peace" mission to Russia and China. During this mission, he presented himself as a representative of the European Union, despite having no authority to do so. European politicians have responded to this situation with initial retaliatory measures. How will Viktor Orbán proceed? What strategies and tactics might the Hungarian Prime Minister use during his presidency? Oszkár Roginer-Hofmeister, a research fellow at EUROPEUM Institute, commented on this for e15.

Hungary may hold the EU presidency until the end of the year, but member state politicians plan to ignore meetings the country holds. This is in response to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's secret visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as an unscheduled call for a ceasefire issued to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vít Havelka, a research fellow at EUROPEUM Institute, commented on the boycott for Hospodářské noviny.

Hungary took over the EU presidency today, giving Budapest, perceived as a troublemaker in the European institutions, a different role for six months. At the same time, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced over the weekend the formation of a new alliance in the European Parliament with the Czech ANO movement and the Freedom Party of Austria. Viktor Daněk, deputy director of EUROPEUM Institute, comments on the formation of the new alliance.

Performances of previous Czech presidents, the contribution of the Czech EU Commissioner Věra Jourová, roaming and reverse charge and the assessment of the Czech Republic as the country of EU Presidency. The topics of the Czech Radio series on Czech footsteps in the European Union were commented by Viktor Daněk, Deputy Director of EUROPEUM Institute.

The Czech Republic presents itself as one of the leaders in aid to Ukraine, which is affected by Russian aggression, and in the second half of last year it held the Presidency of the EU Council, thus taking important decisions. Our editorial team went to Brussels - the centre of EU affairs - to find out whether this is indeed the case. How has the Czech reaction to the war affected the country's position in the EU-27 or its reputation in the eyes of its international partners? Žiga Faktor, head of the EUROPEUM Institute's Brussels office, commented on the following topics.

Sweden took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU for the third time on 1 January 2022. Our researcher Klára Votavová commented for ČT24 on what is expected from the Swedish Presidency, how Sweden wants to help Ukraine, and she also summarised the Czech Presidency.

Our research fellow Vít Havelka commented for Seznam Zprávy. In the article, Vít Havelka mentions the future Czech EU Presidency and the possibility of Ukraine becoming a member of the European Union. The article also includes the results of a survey conducted by the platform Výzkumník Seznam.

Our researcher Vojtěch Freitag, in his article "French presidency of the EU and Strategic Compass: More EU military missions to come?", writes about France and its presidency of the European Union. France has put forward its vision of the next year EU agenda with a strong emphasis on EU sovereignty.

In an article for iRozhlas, our researcher Vít Havelka contributed an analysis of European politics in the context of the new government, the Visegrad Group and the upcoming EU presidency. In his opinion, there will be a radical change in the rhetoric and the way of negotiation on the European stage, but we cannot expect big differences in the Czech vote.

In his policy paper, Vít Havelka deals with the matter of the Czech EU presidency and what needs to be done for it to be successful.

On December 15, the very last debate of 2020 from the series EU± took place. The debate was organized by the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy and the Department of European Studies of FSV UK. The topic of „Portuguese and Czech Presidency of the EU Council” was discussed by Ambassador of Portugal to the Czech Republic Luís de Almeida Sampaio, our Associate Research Fellow Zuzana Stuchlíková and former Permanent Representative to the EU Milena Vicenová. The debate took place in English and was charied by Tomáš Weiss, researcher, and head of the Department of European Studies FSV UK.

Christian Kvorning Lassen from EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy together with Jan Kovář from Institute of International Relations Prague wrote a commentary "Czechia: economic recovery at the expense of climate and solidarity" for the EPIN Report publication, concerned with Germany's EU Council presidency, which starts in July.