As of July, the Czech Republic is taking over the helm of the Council of the European Union. Its priorities will differ from those of its French predecessor focusing on the interests of “new member states”, including Poland.

Every six months, another Member State takes over the rotating presidency of the EU Council. During this period, it chairs meetings of the institution at all levels, helping to ensure continuity in the work of the EU. Poland, so far, has held the post for one six-month period – in 2012 – and its next term is in 2025.

Prague’s six-month programme

“During its presidency, the Czech Republic will focus on five closely linked priority areas:

Managing the refugee crisis and Ukraine’s post-war recovery
Energy security

Resilience of democratic institutions,” a document presented by the government in Prague stated.

The Czech EU Presidency #CZPRES is coming! Only 9 days left! ����
Minister @JanLipavsky presented #CZPRES foreign policy priorities today at the @CzechMFA. These include:

���� Ukraine
⚡Energy
��️ Defence
��Economy
��️ Democracy

Learn more about our priorities ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ryXmaUjHe6

— Czech MFA (@CzechMFA) June 21, 2022

The Czech Republic wants to stiffen the EU’s stance toward Russia including the “strengthening of sanctions” and the “political and military support for Ukraine”.

With regard to energy security, Prague intends to “break its dependence on Russian gas, oil and coal”. The Czech presidency also declares its readiness to work on the implementation of regulations on gas reserves, that is, filling up storage facilities in the run-up to winter, and promoting joint purchases of the raw material. Furthermore, the government in Prague wants to strengthen the role of nuclear energy in ensuring the Community’s energy security and meeting its climate goals.

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The Czech Republic will also “focus on reinforcing security and defence capabilities, in particular in partnership with NATO”, “long-term cooperation on strategic military systems” and “the fight against disinformation and the security of cyberspace”.

Moreover, Prague plans to “work on accelerating the process of concluding trade agreements with democratic states and on deepening transatlantic cooperation in the framework of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) with a focus on strategic cooperation, including joint measures for supply chain resilience.”

Lastly, the Czech government will “focus on strengthening the resilience of institutions that have a major influence on maintaining and developing values of democracy and the rule of law in the EU. These include, for example, transparent financing of political parties, the independence of mass media and an open dialogue with citizens”.

France’s legacy

The French presidency of the Council of the European Union, which ends on June 30, was marked by the difficult development of a common Community policy towards Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the double election in the Republic itself.

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Experts from the pan-European research programme ESPON recall that the French presidency of the Council of the EU began on January 1, when it seemed that the most important challenge would be to rebuild economies after the COVID-19 pandemic. This however changed in February when the world’s attention focused on Ukraine defending its borders.

After the start of the invasion, 27 Member States imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, broke the taboo that had surrounded defence funding for decades and officially granted Ukraine candidate status to the Community. On the other hand, Europe today faces very serious risks, such as record inflation or the looming food and energy crisis, ESPON analysts conclude.

Under the Presidency of France, the EU adopted a final version of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), agreed on a binding target of at least 40 percent female representation on the supervisory boards of listed companies, set minimum wages in all Community countries and prepared the future enlargement of the EU to include the countries of the Western Balkans.

Paris pushed the position of the richer and more developed countries of the so-called “old 15” in many areas, especially in the context of the emerging slogans on accelerating decarbonisation and achieving the goals of the European Green Deal even before 2050.