On 25 November 2010 CENS in cooperation with IRES organized a lecture entitled “Experience of the Czech EU Presidency” presented by the new Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Hungary H.E. Helena Bambasová. Only few weeks away from the start of the Hungarian Council Presidency, H.E. Bambasová, previously performing the function of the Deputy Minister at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provided the audience with first-hand experience from the period when Prague presided over the EU in the first half of 2009. This lecture was the second in the Ambassadorial Lecture Series held monthly in the premises of CEU.

The Czech Republic, in Trio with France and Sweden, was the second from the new Member States that held the rotating Presidency. However, the country was chairing the EU in the period before the Lisbon Treaty and its new functions came into force so the Czech experience might be different from what awaits Hungary. To get an idea about the requirements of the Presidency in terms of institutional and budgetary capacities, H.E. Bambasová mentioned some figures: the Czech government allocated 80 million EUR for 3 years period (2 years preparations plus the year of the Presidency), recruited 340 new staff for the Presidency, held 3000 meetings at all different levels (EU-US informal Summit, first Eastern Partnership Summit) and more than 3 million people visited the official Presidency website.

In order to be able to handle unexpected situations, careful preparations, planning and building up capacities are necessary. Unforeseen circumstances occurred also during the Czech Presidency, such as the gas supply crisis between Russia and Ukraine and the resignation of the Czech government in the middle of the Presidency. The latter caused that from the political point of view, the Czech Presidency could not be considered as a success anymore. The Czech government identified three main priorities for the Presidency, also called “3 E-s”: Economy, Energy and EU in the world, and formulated the Presidency motto “Europe without barriers”. A big achievement of the Czech Presidency was that the Eastern Partnership has been launched and became an important part of the neighbourhood policy. Prague hosted the first Eastern Partnership Summit during the Presidency in May 2009. Since other countries beside the EU also share interest in the Eastern dimension of the neighbourhood policy (such as Norway, Russia, US, Turkey), it might be one of Hungary’s tasks during its term to involve them in the process. Concerning enlargement, Croatia’s accession negotiations have been suspended because of the bilateral dispute with Slovenia. However, the negotiation talks are likely to be finalized during the successive Hungarian – Polish Presidencies. There has also been progress in visa liberalization for the Western Balkans countries and good relations have been maintained with the new US administration – major speech of President Obama outlining his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons has been delivered at the EU-US informal Summit in Prague during the Presidency.

To conclude, H.E. Bambasová emphasized that a Presidency is a unique opportunity to promote the presiding country, bring the EU closer to its citizens and it is a maturity test to become a successful and experienced member of the EU. Controversial pieces of art like Entropa by David Černý that provoke debate in the media can help attract attention and launch discussion among the population about the EU.