Prague, Feb 22 (CTK) – The preservation of Czech citizens’ rights, economic ties and alliance in the military sphere are the Czech Republic’s priorities for negotiations about Britain’s departure from the EU, representatives of the parties in parliament agreed yesterday.
They discussed the matter at a meeting Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) convoked.
He said the agreement reached is rare on the Czech political scene.
Similar meetings will be held in the future as well.
The meeting was attended by the chairmen of the CSSD, the junior government Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), the rightist opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) and TOP 09, and the opposition Communists (KSCM) and the Dawn-National Coalition movement.
The government ANO movement was represented by MEP Pavel Telicka.
The politicians approved a statement that will be part of the Czech government’s mandate for Brexit negotiations, Sobotka said.
The party chairmen declared in it that they will strive for the closest political, economic and security relations with London.
“The Czech Republic’s major priorities for the negotiations on the conditions of the termination of the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union is the preservation of the current access to the goods and services market, the ensuring of the rights of our citizens and a solution to budget matters,” the statement writes.
Sobotka praised the fact that both the opposition and the government were capable of finding agreement on the Czech stance.
“Yesterday is a rare moment of accord. The Chamber of Deputies has not seen many of them in the past ten or 15 years. I believe that this is a good signal of that Czech political representatives have been able to reach agreement on our national interest within the negotiations that the European Union will conduct,” Sobotka said at a press conference after the meeting.
He said the group will continue meeting in the future probably on the level of party deputy chairpersons.
It will debate Brexit, but it could also take up an EU reform.
The EU member countries will be jointly negotiating about Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. They are to start in March after Prime Minister Theresa May announces in Brussels that her country is leaving the Union based on the results of last year’s referendum.
The negotiations are supposed not to be easy. Disputes are mainly expected in the field of free movement and access to the EU market. May has made it clear that she wants a “hard” Brexit, or Britain’s complete separation from the EU.
