The Czech Republic took the helm of the EU on Thursday and tried to allay doubts over its ability to lead with a plan to seek a ceasefire to the deadliest violence in the Gaza Strip in decades.
The Czechs had raised concern among some EU states over how well they could follow France’s initiative-filled tenure, in which French President Nicolas Sarkozy tackled issues ranging from climate change to the Russia-Georgia conflict.
With Europe facing its possibly worst economic crisis since World War II and an energy dispute between Russia and Ukraine, diplomats had wondered if the Czech Republic’s small size and government resistant to deeper integration could meet the task.
As his first act, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek announced an EU mission to work for a Gaza ceasefire. He said the plan was vital due to the absence of a major US role as president-elect Barack Obama prepares to replace George W. Bush on Jan. 20.
“The unpleasant thing is that we cannot count on the US administration ... It is up to the European Union to take over the initiative,” Topolanek told Czech TV. “I think it’s our main role in the coming days and weeks.”
He hoped Obama would “not make the same mistake as Bush, meaning to push the Middle East problem aside.”
Israel has killed some 400 Palestinians in strikes it says are aimed at putting an end to Hamas rocket attacks.
Topolanek said the mission would comprise EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Czech, French and Swedish foreign ministers. It will overlap with a visit by Sarkozy to the region on Monday.
The Czech presidency also urged further talks and a quick resolution to the Russia-Ukraine dispute after Russia said it would switch off supplies to its ex-Soviet neighbor. Prague also demanded Russia meet its obligations to the EU.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said he had expected difficulties from the start of the six-month presidency.
“We have to face up to it. It’s a challenge,” he told news agency CTK.
Topolanek also said he would announce a previously planned Cabinet reshuffle, with “significant” changes, on Monday, and said his government would set a date for euro adoption on Nov. 1 — ending years of Czech resistance to a specific target.
The Czech republic’s 10 million people have suffered only a glancing blow from the economic crisis that has wreaked havoc across the rest of the bloc’s 495 million population in the form of plummeting markets, bank bailouts and job losses.
Topolanek’s minority center-right government has dragged its heels on the Lisbon reform treaty, a charter designed to streamline EU decision making. The Czechs are the only member not to have voted on the charter.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus is also a staunch euroskeptic who has openly campaigned against the Lisbon treaty, although his post is largely ceremonial. In the past he has said that “a well-functioning, bureaucratic EU is not my goal.”
At the stroke of midnight marking the new year, authorities illuminated central Prague’s giant metronome know as the “Time Machine” in the Czech colors of red, white and blue and the EU blue flag with yellow stars.
Klaus took a non-combative tone in a New Year’s day address, but advocated an EU where “political decision making is as close to the citizen as possible” — a veiled swipe at Lisbon, which he argues will interfere with individual states’ sovereignty.
“We do not have any alternative to membership in the European Union and it is unfair if somebody is trying to force us into an opposite stance,” he said.
He said the EU presidency would give the country a chance “to influence the activity of this important organization.”
“It is in our interest to succeed in this role,” Klaus said.
During the Czech presidency of the bloc, Klaus has vowed not to fly the EU flag over Prague Castle because, he said, the country “is not an EU province.”
The last EU presidency under France featured efforts to tackle Europe’s economic woes, and the next six months of Czech leadership will also involve dealing with the global financial crisis and overseeing implementation of a new US$258 billion European economic stimulus package.
On the economy, the Czechs’ expect slight growth next year and unemployment rising to around 6 percent, which could put them at odds with euro zone states fighting recession, or Spain, where some economists say unemployment could hit 20 percent.
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