Prague, June 11 (CTK) – Stefan Fuele, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy in 2010-14, has offered himself as a European security commissioner to Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek, with the post of OSCE head being his goal, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday.
“I really cannot rule out having made the offer,” LN quotes Fuele, 53, as saying.
Fuele declined to elaborate.
Fuele, a career diplomat, was a free lance expert after his term of office with the EU expired last November, LN writes.
He became one of the main public faces of the European Values think tank with which he cooperates, it adds.
Since April, Fuele has been a Foreign Ministry employee, but he has not been appointed to any major position, LN writes.
He only receives the base pay, but he is paid a rent from Brussels, it adds.
As he served as an EU top official in the past five years, during which he closely communicated with the heads of state of Western Balkan countries and Ukraine, he would like to become the head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2017, LN writes.
Fuele’s CV meets the criteria for the post, it adds.
Fuele was the European affairs minister in Jan Fischer’s caretaker cabinet in 2009, LN writes.
Fuele was also Czech ambassador to Lithuania (1998-2001) Britain (2003-2005) and NATO (2005-2009) and a deputy defence minister (2001-2002).
In order to become the OSCE head, Fuele needs an unambiguous support of his country and subsequently of the crucial OSCE players such as the EU, LN writes.
However, the support from Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s centre-left coalition government is not certain, it adds.
As a proponent of the EU association agreement with Ukraine and supporter of the new, post-Maidan establishment, Fuele is rejected by a faction of Sobotka’s Social Democrats (CSSD), LN writes.
The pro-Russian CSSD faction that disseminates the Kremlin interpretation of the Ukrainian events considers Fuele an undesirable person, it adds.
“I was told that according to some CSSD members, my hands are stained with blood,” Fuele is quoted as saying.
It is typical of the Czech Republic that it is unable to make use of the knowledge and exclusive contacts of its former European commissioners, LN writes.
Pavel Telicka (shared the portfolio of Health and Consumer Protection in 2004), Vladimir Spidla (European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities from 2004 to 2010) and now Fuele have never received any serious offers from the state, it adds.
