Kurier: Paris lustre will be replaced by Prague dispute

Vienna, Dec 30 (CTK) - The brilliant French presidency of the European
Union that ends on Wednesday is a heavy heritage for the Czech Republic
that will be EU president in the first half of 2009, daily Kurier wrote
Tuesday, adding that the Paris lustre will be replaced by the Prague dispute.

The paper writes that hardly ever in the past have so many European
politicians spoken openly with such scepticism about a new presiding
country like this time.

There are many reasons for this, Kurier writes.

The Czech Republic has not shown much solidarity with the EU since its
entry in 2004. This started with the positive stand on the Iraq war and
ended with the agreement to host a U.S. anti-missile radar base on Czech
soil, the paper writes.

It says the Czech Republic takes into account Washington rather than
Brussels.

The dispute is now escalating around the Lisbon reform treaty and it is yet
far from being over, Kurier writes.

It says Czech President Vaclav Klaus likes his position of an EU opponent
so much that he is steadily stepping up his attacks on it.

The Czech government will have a very hard task proving its pro-European
stand in the six months to come, Kurier writes.

On top of it, the Czech opposition threatens to provoke a new vote of no
confidence in the government, the paper writes.

It says a change of government at the time of presidency and in a situation
where Europe is looking for a joint action in the struggle against the
financial crisis would seriously harm the Czech Republic.

No one can even imagine what would happen if Klaus really created a joint
platform with the Irish EU opponent Declan Ganley for the European
Parliament elections in June, Kurier writes.