Prague, March 28 (CTK) – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is waging a silent war with the Czech Republic as Czech politicians are critical of him and this is also why his participation in a Prague conference on the EU’s common defence will only be formal, Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has invited Juncker to the Prague conference. However, the event will probably end without a clear declaration that the EU member states really care for a joint military command, LN says.
According to its sources, the Czech organisers had originally bolder plans and expected Juncker to bring “a white paper” to the Prague summit, a “certain scenario of the steps leading to the joint military.” If exactly Juncker submitted such a document, it would confirm the EU’s will to form a joint military.
Besides, the timing is perfect since the EU regular summit will take place in Brussels a week after the Prague conference. Juncker’s green light to the EU army’s project would be a significant impulse, LN writes.
However, these plans had to be dropped.
“Juncker’s cabinet has sent a message saying his participation will only be formal and that no fundamental steps can be expected from him,” a source familiar with the preparation of the Prague conference told LN.
Yet Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) is of the view that the conference is meaningful even without Juncker’s gesture. “I expect a debate, not a conclusion, not to mention an official one,” he told LN.
The paper writes that Juncker’s reserved response to the invitation to Prague was probably caused by Czech politicians’ criticism of his conduct.
Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek (Social Democrats, CSSD), for instance, criticised Juncker for not having got acquainted with the opinions of the Visegrad Four (V4) countries when the crisis around the EC-proposed obligatory refugee quotes was culminating in the autumn of 2015. The V4 group is comprised of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
“I mind having an EC head who only arrives in Eastern Europe if Slovakia holds EU presidency,” Zaoralek said in an interview for Hospodarske noviny (HN) daily recently.
Stropnicky, whose ministry is a co-organiser of the Prague conference, has also challenged Juncker’s stances. He said Juncker behaved like “an offended young lady” in reaction to the Brexit referendum result when claiming that Britain should leave the EU as quickly as possible.
Juncker alone caused a rift with Prague last November when he commented on the death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. He called him “a hero for many.” After a Czech TV reporter’s question whether he knows that Castro supported the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Juncker’s spokesman only said this was “a too narrow view of history,” LN writes.
It says the Czech Republic is not the only EU country indicating that it is high time to replace Juncker. Poland and Estonia criticised him openly last year, too. Moreover, German Chancellor Angela Merkel did not invite him to the first “crisis meeting” after the Brexit referendum last June.
Juncker has worked out the uncomfortable situation himself as he announced in February that he would not be defending the post of EC head in the 2019 EP election, LN writes.
hol/t/pv
