Petr Fiala

Petr, business or defense? This was the question posed to Prime Minister Petr Fiala by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Fiala replied that he wanted trade. Filip Křenek, an analyst at EUROPEUM Institute, commented for Hospodářské noviny.

A poll for Czech Television shows that only 17 percent of Czechs are content with their political representation. Public discontent has intensified due to recent austerity measures intended to address the public deficit, with significant concerns over inflation, increasing living costs, energy price policies, and the government's poor communication. Klára Votavová, an Associate Research Fellow at EUROPEUM Institute, spoke to Czech Radio about the roots of this distrust and how Fiala's government plans to respond ahead of the 2025 parliamentary elections.

Petr Fiala will discuss the future direction of the European Union with other European leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania. At an informal working dinner the new strategic agenda is the main topic. The strategy is always defined in the context of the European Parliament elections and before the appointment of each European Commission. In an interview for ČRo Plus Viktor Daněk, deputy director of the EUROPEUM Institute, spoke about both the Czech and EU priorities.

Czech governments have always been strong supporters of EU enlargement, and the same is true of the current one. The cabinet of Petr Fiala of the ODS might even like to be seen as the one that has done the most of Czech governments for the accession of new members to the shared club so far.

EU Member States reached agreement on a migration pact to improve migration control and speed up the return of failed asylum seekers. The Czech Republic abstained in the vote and Prime Minister Petr Fiala has expressed concern about the proposed changes, which he says increase the administrative burden on states. Senior researcher Vít Havelka spoke to TN.cz about the issue.

Our researcher Zuzana Stuchlíková gave an interview for ČRo Plus on the evaluation of the speech of Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala in the European Parliament. According to her, Prime Minister Fiala fulfilled what was expected of him.

The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU begins today. One of the challenges that the Czech Republic will face is the possible extension of sanctions against Russia, for instance in the gas sector. However, the geographical proximity of Ukraine to the Czech Republic should facilitate negotiations on this issue. Žiga Faktor, head of our Brussels office, commented on this topic for the Slovenian online daily DELO.