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Speech of Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus at the EU SUMMIT

English Pages, 22. 6. 1996

Mr Chairman, dear colleagues,

Let me first, on behalf of the Czech Republic, express our thanks to Italian Prime Minister Prodi for inviting us to this summit. We are convinced that our meetings durind EU summits have already created an important tradition and give all of us a forum for exchanging ideas on the key European issues.

At the end of January 1996, I had the honor to present an official application of the Czech Republic for a membership to the EU. On our side, we consider this step as very important. We take it as a logical outcome of the historical development of our country and as a logical continuation of changes which we have initiated after the collapse of communism. We are ready to take - together with you - all the responsibilities regarding the forming of new, more free, more prosperous Europe and, at the same time, we are ready to demonstrate our ability to cope with all the conditions which are connected with our future membership in the EU.

We have recently got the questionnare which the EU sent to all of the candidates for the membership and I can assure you that at present we intensively work towards its final completion.

We understand the complexity of the problems and tasks which influence the European agenda today. We believe that the present discussions and the IGC will result in finding a consensus about realistic strategy of the European integration process, which would consider both the needs of further deepening of integration mechanisms and of widening of the European Union by those European states that share the same civilization values as the present members of the EU and are willing to participate in this process.

We follow with great interest your decisions, your methods of searching for a consensus, and in this respect your ability to solve the mad cow issue gives us a positive signal that the EU is able to look for real, practical solutions which are not easily solved just by using existing formal mechanisms. As you know, the last six months have brought some important events on the political scene of the Czech Republic. Nearly a month ago we held the third free elections after the fall of communism. Their outcome is perhaps more surprising than was originally expected, but I think that we can draw several conclusions which give it a positive interpretation:

a) The transformation policy was not refused in the Czech Republic. The pro-reform parties, which have formed the Government coalition until now, received in these elections the same number of votes as in the past elections. This result is different from the situation in most of other transforming countries, where the parties responsible for the transformation process were refused by the voters. I am sure there are no doubts that the present policy of the Czech Republic will not be changed and I am convinced that it will be proved in the next months.

b) The votes for the oposition were not the votes against the transformation process. They represented a certain degree of dissatisfaction with some partial aspects of recent changes and often also expressed rather unrealistic expectations regarding the speed of balancing the living standards with the countries of the EU.

c) The results of the Czech Parliamentary elections were more influenced by the fact that we have gone far in our transformation process, rather than that we have not gone far enough. The voter was making his decision in a standard political system, not in a revolution time like four years ago.

d) The perspective of our membership in the EU is for all democratic parties present in the new Parliament clear and undoubted priority.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, before closing I would like to stress a strong interest of the Czech Republic to continue with the tradition of our meetings with serious discussions about the future of the European integration process. Its success is our common interest.

Václav Klaus, Florence, 22 June 1996