Prague, Dec 20 (CTK) – The draft policy statement that the Czech minority government of Andrej Babis (ANO) approved on Monday does not include any particular pledges in the sphere of foreign policy, political analysts Vit Dostal and Vladimir Bartevic told CTK on Wednesday.
Dostal, head of the Association of International Affairs (AMO), said the chapter on Czech foreign policy is shorter than those presented within the policy statements of the previous two governments.
Bartevic, from the Europeum institute, said Babis’s cabinet makes the European Union and NATO memberships the key priorities same as the previous coalition government of Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD), in which the ANO movement participated.
“Unlike the previous government, this one puts much more emphasis on the promotion of national interests and big space is given to the definition of the Czech interest in the area of migration. But the draft is not specific enough,” Bartevic said.
Dostal shares the view that a lot of space is given to migration, while other areas of foreign relations are mentioned only briefly.
He said the policy statement declares that the Czech Republic wants to take part in the preparation of a EU reform, but does not say how this reform should look like.
Dostal said there is no mention of the negotiations about the EU budget for the next few years.
Bartevic said the text fails to give a clear stance on the position of the country in the EU.
“The previous government saw the Czech Republic in the core of the European integration and acknowledged that the country cannot be in the core without joining the euro zone. On the contrary, this statement argues why this government is not going to adopt the euro,” Bartevic said.
Dostal said the relations towards Russia are defined vaguely and the Czech position is not defined in the text.
The chapter on foreign policy covers less than two pages of the 32-page policy statement.
Dostal said it seems interesting that Poland is omitted in the part dealing with partner relations with other countries. “Special relations with Germany, Slovakia and Austria are mentioned, but Poland is not mentioned,” he said about the four countries that are the neighbours of the Czech Republic.
