At January 1st the EU Presidency of the Czech Republic started. New EU President is the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. However the European public discussed about the Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the most outspoken Eurosceptic among Europe’s high-ranking politicians who in fact has only ceremonial powers in the Czech governmental system and should have no role to play in the future presidency.

Klaus advocates for a scaled back European Union to the earliest possible level of an intergovernmental organisation and free trade zone. In his views according to Chatham House’ “The World Today” the Global Financial Crisis was not caused by the lack of market rules but by over regulation. Needless to say that the President is mostly isolated from the positions of the Czech government.

However the Presidents arguments against the “bureaucratic Moloch” in Brussels are shared by many citizens in his country and the whole of Europe. The Chatham House magazine therefore proposes not to ignore him but to put his arguments to a test. However this would mean to openly debate the future of the European Union which is at this point of the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty very unlikely.

Furthermore, I believe that most European citizen do not want new institutional debates which for some might seem to be the main activity of the European Union in recent years. What they want is to find solutions to current problems of the financial crisis, security issues, etc. Already at this point it would be very clear that President Klaus suggestions would not bring Europe any further.

Unfortunately the radical utterances of Klaus seem to be seen as general position of the Czech. Contrasting this the Eurobarometer Survey (FAZ, 27 Dec 08) shows the Czech Republic as not more eurosceptic than other countries like France, Germany or Italy.

The Czech EU Presidency had a turbulent start with Israels war in Gaza, the pressing financial crisis and the gas conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. The New Years Speech of the Vaclav Klaus was rather moderate. He saw the Czech Presidency as a way to make the EU more democratic and even called on the Czech population to participate in the European Elections in June. (Radio Prague, 2 Jan 09)

Mirek Topolanek is leading the Civic Democratic Party in the Czech Parliament. The centre right party holds rather sceptical views towards the European Union. Nonetheless it sees no alternative to the EU membership and is become more integration friendly under its leader.

Let’s give the new Czech Presidency some credits. Sure big diplomatic moves as we saw under the French Presidency are rather unlikely. But this should not be expected by a small member states who might more play the role of a silent broker between the different national interests something we might most in the future year 2009.