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Former president Václav Havel gave a speech at the European Parliament on Wednesday, and the reception was a marked contrast to that given to his successor Václav Klaus earlier this year. Mr Havel received warm applause from MEPs for his words on European identity and integration, and also asked for Europe to be patient with its often troublesome newer members from the former communist east.

The tortuous process of choosing a new European Commissioner is over – the government announced on Tuesday that Europe Minister Štefan Füle would be nominated to the five-year post. The breakthrough came after the two major political parties – who control much of the decision-making in the caretaker cabinet – finally agreed on an acceptable candidate.

The Czech government failed on Monday to agree on the Czech candidate to be its next European Commissioner. The government will now meet for an extraordinary session on Tuesday morning to try and make some progress. Selection of a candidate to fill the plum post has been complicated by the main parties refusing to budge from their demands that their man gets the job. Prime Minister Jan Fisher made the surprise suggestion over the weekend that central bank governor Zdeněk Tůma could get the post. That suggestion got the brush off from the main parties. Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolánek said on Monday that parties should advance new candidates at the latest by Wednesday if there is no breakthrough beforehand. He added that the country’s European reputation is at stake.

The finance ministry has said that the costs of the Czech EU Presidency amounted to 3.25 billion crowns by the end of September. This figure is roughly half a billion crown less than what was originally budgeted for the period of 2007 to 2009. That sum will rise before the ministry gives the government the final calculation in the first quarter of next year. The Czech Republic took the EU’s six-month rotating presidency over from France at the start of 2009. That country reported about the same costs, i.e. 3.77 billion crowns, but also stated it was approximately twice the average.

An annual survey on the drug situation by the European drug agency released on Thursday has confirmed that when it comes to the abuse of illegal drugs marijuana and ecstasy by young users, Czechs rank the very worst. This is despite the fact that over the last few years or so the situation in the country has actually somewhat improved.

Czechs still lead EU statistics in the use of soft drugs, such as marihuana and ecstasy, according to a report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Forty-four percent of Czechs under twenty-four say they have used marihuana, compared to the EU average of 30 percent, and fifteen percent say they have used ecstasy, where the EU average in 6 percent only. One positive aspect highlighted in the report is that the Czech Republic is one of the few EU countries in which drug-related crime has decreased.

Social Democrat senators have slammed the government for negotiating an opt-out to the Charter of Fundamental Rights attached to the Lisbon treaty without Parliament’s approval. In a stormy session of the upper chamber, Senate deputy chairwoman Alena Gajdušková of the Social Democrats said it was not the Lisbon treaty but the Czech government which was undermining the country’s sovereignty by overstepping its mandate in this matter. Minister for European Affairs Štefan Fůle strongly rejected the accusations saying that the government had acted fully within its mandate. He said that the heads of the upper and lower chamber had both been present at the government session devoted to the Lisbon treaty and had not voiced any reservations with regard to the government’s strategy.

The opt-out granted to the Czech Republic is to be attached to the next EU accession treaty and is thus not expected to come into force for several years. The Social Democrats have said they will try to prevent it coming into force. Tuesday’s fierce two-hour debate in the Senate is indicative of the controversy surrounding the opt-out which was adopted at the eleventh hour as a last minute concession to President Vaclav Klaus.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has criticized the Višegrad group states

for meeting ahead of key EU sessions to consult their positions on the topic of the day. According to the news site euobserver.com Mr. Sarkozy advised the Višegrad group not to make a habit of this. The four post-communist states – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – have regularly consulted their positions in the run up to EU membership and as EU newcomers in order to better defend their interests.

With the dust settling on the protracted Czech ratification of the EU’s Lisbon treaty, politicians round Europe are getting to grips with some of the stalled issues. One of them is the nomination of a new European Commission and share out of the plum and not so plum posts. The Czech government has made this a top priority but political parties are still haggling about who should get the nomination.

The president’s unexpected last-minute demand and the delays surrounding the Lisbon treaty’s ratification in the Czech Republic have not gone down well in Brussels and where many now see the Czech Republic as a troublemaker. Will Tuesday’s verdict finally send out the right signal? A question for Jan Macháček, commentator for the weekly Respekt.