Munich, Germany, March 10 (CTK correspondent) – The European Union (EU) is the best safeguard to prevent a decision on the fate of one state being made without its consent, like in 1938 in Munich, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in the place where the Munich Agreement was signed yesterday.
Under the Munich Agreement, signed by Britain, France, Germany and Italy on September 29, 1938, Czechoslovakia had to cede its border regions to Nazi Germany.
Bavarian Minister-President Horst Seehofer, who met Sobotka yesterday, called the Munich Agreement a historical shame.
“The Munich Agreement was an immensely tragic and bitter moment in the history of the Czech nation. A democratic, humanistic country in Central Europe was sacrificed with a false assumption that it would prevent the outbreak of a world war,” Sobotka said.
“Czechs were not invited to the negotiating table then, in 1938. Czechoslovakia was negotiated without Czechoslovakia’s participation,” he added.
“I am convinced that the best prevention of any nation in European being negotiated without having a chance to take part in it is that we are sitting together at a negotiating table within the joint Europe, within the European Union,” he added.
“Though there are undoubtedly many reasons why we may be dissatisfied with Europe or criticise it, its importance for a peaceful cooperation of nations is unquestionable. If we preserve the joint Europe, then the events like those in Munich in 1938 will never repeat,” Sobotka stressed.
Sobotka is the first Czech PM to visit the place where the Munich Agreement was signed. A memorial plaque with texts in Czech, Slovak and German was unveiled there in February.
Sobotka and Seehofer, at the same time, praised the Czech-Bavarian excellent relations. This has been proved by the fact that since the formation of Sobotka’s government in 2014, they have met for the sixth time, they added.
Another meeting of both heads of government is scheduled for May when Seehofer is to arrive in Prague to attend the opening of a Czech-Bavarian exhibition on Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia (1316-1378).
