The Czech cabinet no longer wants to sweeten it up for Europe. It seems like the President Václav Klaus can mange that on his own.
Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek and Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra Wednesday introduced the logo of their EU presidency. Ballerinas danced there and violinist Pavel Šporcl played some Brussels-like song, but in the end, it all came down to whether President Klaus can be the dissident he claimed to be in Ireland in connection with the Lisbon Treaty.
“The visual style of the Czech presidency shows that the Czechs are not formal and dull, and that they are not afraid to make big steps and that they also have style,” Vondra said, and he definitely did not try hinting at the president’s campaign against Lisbon. The logo replaced the slogan “We will sweeten it up for Europe” of the governmental posters with sugar cubes.
It was the fact that President Václav Klaus took that slogan to heart that spoiled the cabinet’s union celebrations, in which they probably wanted to show their more mature side. The premier managed to sketch out the Czech presidency’s priorities listed as triple Es – economy and impacts of the financial crisis, energy and Europe and other relations, mainly with the east and the Balkans. Then he had to answer questions concerning the president’s Irish adventure.
The logo will be used for promotional materials, at top EU meetings and will also adorn European institutions. “It is a play with colours and codes of the individual states spread around the EU map and then mixed together in a coequal mosaic,” said the logo’s author, graphic designer Tomáš Pakosta. He, himself, was quite calm during the political dispute concerning the shades of Czech Euro scepticism. “Let the EU be a federation, I won’t mind, I do not understand why politicians need to fly the national flag,” he said. But he also said he does not mind working for the government which does not hide the fact that the EU is only a marriage of convenience.
The jury for the logo consisted of prominent Czech graphic design experts who chose from 350 proposals, and the final round reportedly took place in the gymnasium of the governmental offices.
“I see the biggest success of the logo to be in the fact that, unlike other candidates, it did not try to find any pictorial motif,” said Rostislav Vaněk, one of the jury members from Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design. He thinks the logo of the French presidency based on the contrast of the French and EU flag is not only a cliché but also represents the old view of the union. “And a certain promotion of their own world perspective. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, presents itself as a powerful organiser,” he said.
“And independent” graphic designer Robert V. Novák from Novák & Balihar studio praised the logo, saying that through its simplicity and clarity it could recall the Austrian one, which used the symbol of a bar code and also the flag colours of the individual EU members.
Communications expert Daniel Köppl, on the other hand, does not find the logo eye-catching. “For me, the logo is incomprehensible. And it does not arouse emotion, which I think it should,” he said.
