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Czech attempts to have the European Banking Authority re-sited from London to Prague could be led by Karel Dobeš, the Czech News Agency reported on Saturday. A similar post was already created by the government with Dobeš tasked then to pave the way for Prague hosting the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA). The Cabinet is to discuss the proposal on Monday. The government has prioritised landing the EBA headquarters over the European Medicines Agency which must also move out of London due to Brexit.

The Euro commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Věra Jourová and Vladimír Špidla, former prime minister and aide to current Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, have stressed the need for the Czech Republic to aim for integration within the core of the European Union. Both were scheduled on Friday to speak at a conference at Prague’s Charles University. Mr Špidla, who was prime minister in 2004 when the Czech Republic joined, said that without integration the EU would not be able to survive as an entity capable of influencing globalization. Mrs Jourová expressed the view that the Czech Republic would most benefit if it were a part of the ‘faster-speed Europe’ when it came to economic and security issues.

The Czech Republic will take up the chairmanship of the ministerial committee of the Council of Europe on May 19. The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organisation with 47 member states. The Czechs have said that they will put the emphasis during the six month chairmanship on the protection of vulnerable groups, promotion of civil society and support for democracy. Many pointers suggest human and democratic rights are under increased pressure across the continent.

The future direction of the European Union is one of the main questions for government leaders and ordinary citizens across the continent. Some of the latter expressed their views in the Brexit referendum. The pluses and negatives of the current political and trade bloc are also at the top of the agenda of the ongoing French presidential elections.

The Czech Republic’s Bohuslav Sobotka and the leaders of 26 other European Union states unanimously approved negotiating guidelines for Brexit talks with the United Kingdom at a special summit in Brussels on Saturday afternoon.

Responding to the European Council’s approval of a joint EU strategy for negotiations with the UK over the latter’s departure from the bloc, the Czech prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, said the move had confirmed the leaders’ unified and common approach. Earlier at Saturday’s special summit in Brussels, Mr. Sobotka had said Prague’s priorities in the first phase of Brexit negotiations would be the rights of Czech citizens and financial settlements. Only once sufficient progress had been made would talks on future relations take place, he said.

The Czech Republic joins the 26 other EU member states in Brussels on Saturday to agree a common negotiating line with the United Kingdom over Brexit. It will be all about the tactics for the expectedly tough talks with the main emphasis being on the rest of the EU reading from the same page.

ANO leader Andrej Babiš, who is widely expected to be the country‘s next prime minister, has said he is opposed to the Czech Republic adopting the euro and is against any further integration with the EU. Speaking in a debate at Charles University, Finance Minister Babiš said he would happily support a multi-speed Europe within which EU members would be free to decide how fast and to what measure they wanted to proceed with EU integration.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the heads of government of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Berlin on Monday to mark a quarter of a century since the signing of a milestone treaty on goodneighbourly relations. However the successes of past years were overshadowed by the challenges of the present: the migrant crisis, Brexit and the controversial German road toll.

Legal position of EU citizens in Britain and financial obligations of Great Britain towards EU countries will be among the V4 priorities in negotiations over Brexit, prime ministers of the Visegrad Four countries agreed at a meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday. The leaders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland repeatedly rejected the idea of cutting funds to countries that refuse to take migrants. The V4 prime ministers are also scheduled to take part in an international Innovators Summit being held in the Polish capital and sign a so-called “pact for innovation”.