Mr Žiga Faktor is the Head of the Brussels office of the Czech think tank EUROPEUM (Institute for European Policy). As the Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union is reaching the first half of its mandate, we discussed the achievements and shortcomings of the Czech diplomats as well as the remaining challenges for the next three months of their term.
Q1. The Czech Presidency of the Council has started on the 1st of July. Can you recall what Prague’s priorities are and assess the achievements of the Czech diplomats thus far?
From the first days of the war in Ukraine, it became obvious that the Czech presidency will be dealing with an unprecedented situation and that the priorities of the Presidency will have to be re-drafted and focused more on the support to Ukraine and the management of the effects of the war. Priorities that had previously been set out, such as deepening the internal market, were put on hold and replaced by more urgent matters, such as energy security, the strengthening of EU’s defence capacities, or the support of the resilience of the EU economy. There were other areas that the Czechs were preparing for, such as the continuation of the work on the “Fit for 55” package, talks over the future of the common migration and asylum system or the adoption of Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), following up on the previous French presidency.
In my opinion, the biggest challenge for the Czech presidency is to maintain the unity of the Member States regarding the war in Ukraine. With the continuation of the conflict, huge socio-economic impacts on average citizens, and constraining political developments in certain countries, it will be harder than ever to keep a unanimous stance. At the same time, the Czech Republic is a good fit for this task, as it has cultural and historical connections to Ukraine, and understands the region better than some of the countries in Western Europe. And so far, we can say that Czech Presidency is successful in this task. Smaller achievements of the Presidency will certainly arrive later in the year as usually happens with presidencies taking over in July. It is also fair to say that some of the successes of the Czech were the results of the work done by the previous French presidency, for example with the adoption of Digital Markets Act.
Q2. There are some critiques in Brussels and around capitals that the Czech Presidency is struggling on a few dossiers, including the allocation of funds of RePowerEU and the EU plan for energy savings (where redistribution fairness does not seem to be achieved thus far) : how do you assess these critiques pertaining to energy, a key priority of the Czech presidency?
There will of course be dossiers which are politically sensitive for Member States, and there is no secret that the Czech Republic was usually among the most conservative countries when it came to the EU’s green ambitions. Therefore, it is no surprise that for example dossiers related to the decarbonization of the automotive industry within the “Fit for 55” package present a big challenge to the Presidency. At the same time, when discussing RePowerEU and even more energy savings, I would find the criticism rather unjust as, firstly, it is an unprecedented crisis that Europe is facing and, secondly, the Member States are still discussing the ways of ensuring the funds are allocated in the first place. Here I am talking specifically about the additional funds that could be gathered from the revenues stemming from the Emissions trading system (ETS) that would under normal circumstances be directed to the Innovation Fund.
We of course have to take into consideration that when it comes to the formulas that should be used for allocation of these funds, the Czech Presidency has to deal with opposing suggestions coming from the Member States, but also from the European Parliament, while trying to find a perfect compromise. I don’t think that the criticism concerning a supposed preferential treatment of Germany, for example, is fair. The Presidency should act as non-biased intermediate and I believe that the Czechs are trying to find the balance between the proposed ideas. Of course, the German economy is the biggest in Europe and will therefore logically get the biggest allocation of the funds. We also have to be aware that not supporting the German economy, which is highly dependent on Russian energy, could have a dramatic economic impact on the whole of the EU. Moreover, the final decision will be taken by all Member States, thus preventing any deals which would not be agreed upon at the macro-level. It is yet to see what will be the final solutions, but I would rather wait with this evaluation for the weeks and months to come.
Q3. The Czech presidency has placed the support to Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees atop of its priorities. One of the key proposals made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jan Lipavský, has been to create a war tribunal to judge war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. How would such a new institution be established and function?
There were various speeches of Minister Lipavský defending this idea, and they were primarily reacting to the calls of Ukrainian officials after the terrors witnessed in some recaptured towns such as Izjum or Buča. There is no question about the reality of the war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, which are directly violating the Geneva Conventions, and Minister Lipavský was addressing this issue on behalf of the Czech Presidency. Although he did not specifically mention how this institution should function, I would imagine it could be very similar to the courts established for the crimes committed in former Yugoslavia. However, there is an obvious problem with this theoretical approach as we cannot expect the Russian government to cooperate with the prosecutions. Therefore, the discussions over the establishment of such a tribunal should be seen more as a symbolic statement condemning the acts of the Russian military and serving as a threat to Vladimir Putin.
Q4. The Czech presidency seems committed to combat foreign manipulation of information and foreign financing of political parties across Europe, an issue which has become increasingly important for EU institutions lately. What breakthroughs can we expect from the presidency of the Council?
This is of course one of the crucial issues when it comes to strengthening the resilience of European democracies. Concretely, it is about reacting to the continuous spread of Russian propaganda and disinformation and about reducing Russia’s interference in elections across the world. But I wouldn’t label it as a specific ambition of the Czech presidency, as the European Commission came forward with the proposal already during the second half of 2021 with the aim of adopting new legislation ahead of the European elections in 2024. It is however very close to the heart of Czech citizens, as Russian interference is more visible in the regions of Central and Eastern Europe. The Council has already adopted a common approach on the matter and we can expect that the Czech presidency will follow up with the discussion with the European Parliament. From my perspective, it is also important to mention that these efforts are further supported by the newly presented Media Freedom Act, which comes from the office of Czech Vice President of the European Commission Věra Jourová, adding some “Czech footprints” on the efforts made to strengthen democratic resilience.
