Related articles

Government reacted to words earlier in the day by the country’s head of state Miloš Zeman about not being against a referendum on EU membership, by saying it was not counting on any steps which would cast doubt on the Czech Republic’s membership in either the EU or NATO. The news was revealed by government spokesman Martin Ayrer; it stated that both the EU and NATO had been long-term foreign policy priorities and were guarantees of economic stability and security. Finance Minister Andrej Babiš also reacted to the president’s words, stressing that a departure from the EU would be disastrous for the country. The head of the Social Democrats’ deputies club Roman Sklenák confirmed that while the party was in favour of the referendum bill, holding a plebiscite on EU membership was, in his view, not a good idea. On June 23, Great Britain shocked the world by voting to leave the 28-member bloc, leaving many as yet unanswered questions over Great Britain’s future.

Almost a week since Great Britain took the momentous decision to leave the European Union the remaining 27 members – including the Czech Republic – have scrambled to look for positives and possible ways forward. The Czech prime minister has joined others in setting out some opening negotiating markers but is also under fire at home from those who want to widen the debate.

The Czech Republic has negotiated a deal in Brussels that spells a green light for a number of major transport projects, the country’s prime minister announced on Wednesday. The projects will not now require fresh environmental impact assessments, meaning Prague should soon be able to access tens of billions of crowns in EU funding.

The Czech Republic does not need to accelerate adoption of the euro because of the UK’s decision last week to quit the European Union, prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in Brussels on Tuesday. Older EU members have been pushing for increased integration in a 27-member bloc, including closer ties within a currency union. Mr. Sobotka told journalists that nobody would be pressured into anything, adding that it was in Czech interests for contact to be maintained between eurozone states and those that have not adopted the common European currency.

The Visegrad Four states issued a joint statement in Brussels on Tuesday expressing deep regret for the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and saying that the EU must emerge stronger from the challenges that poses. The Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary said talks on a way forward should focus on protecting the bloc’s interests. They also outlined a need to renew credibility in an EU that better reflects the concerns of citizens.

The Czech Republic is not demanding the resignation of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, says the country’s prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka. Mr. Sobotka made the comment in Brussels on Tuesday ahead of a meeting of EU leaders to discuss the UK’s plans to quit the bloc. On Sunday the Czech minister of foreign affairs, Lubomír Zaorálek, indirectly called for Mr. Juncker to step down over his responsibility for the UK’s Brexit vote. But Mr. Sobotka said it was not about one person; rather the European Commission needs to change how it operates as an institution.

Prior to the Czech Republic’s joining the European Union in 2004, the country committed to adopting the European currency. But since, the timeframe has since been pushed back, with estimates suggesting the Czechs would not adopt the euro any time before 2020. The Brexit, Great Britain’s decision last week to withdraw from the bloc, may push back adoption even further.

The Czech state’s spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, has concluded in a report that awareness among most Czechs of how EU funds were spent and the existence of various operational programmes has not increased in spite of the hundreds of millions of crowns spent by ministries to publicize them. The office said around 250 million crowns was spent between 2008 and 2015. Around half that total was spent on a series of tv spots which the office said offered hardly any basic information. The ministries of labour and social affairs, regional development, and education were the biggest spenders on publicity material.

The Czech prime minister said that he fears that there will be a new wave of separatism following the British Brexit vote. Speaking in an interview with Austrian paper, Der Standard, Bohuslav Sobotka said the British vote would probably encourage nationalism and separatism. He maintained that the European project is still the best guarantee that the horrors of the 20th century are not repeated. The Czech prime minister warned thought that the EU should reform itself so that it can be more effective, more flexible, and less bureaucratic. Foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek said after a meeting of foreign ministers from the Visegrad Four as well as France and Germany that Britain’s exist should not stop the EU’s evolution. He said new relations with Britain should be on friendly terms. Zaorálek added that rapid further EU steps towards integration would be the wrong response to the British referendum result.

The Czech government has decided to create a special working group to deal with the possible implications of ‘Brexit,’ the result of last week’s British referendum decision to leave the EU. The group will be headed by the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Tomáš Prouza. It will mainly focus on determining the Czech priorities in the upcoming negotiations with Britain. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka announced the step on his Twitter account.