Köln

Mo. 26.01.2009, 17:30 bis 19:00

Vortrag

The Czech EU Presidency – Difficult leadership in difficult times?

Prof. Lenka Rovná (Univerzita Karlova, Prag)

Hörsaal des Forschungsinstituts für Politische Wissenschaft
Gottfried-Keller-Str. 6
50931 Köln
Nordrhein-Westfalen

Beschreibung:

At the beginning of this month, the Czech Republic took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. As successor to highly active French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek faces a multitude of challenges to his country’s leadership of the European Union in the coming six months. In domestic politics, Topolánek faces internal political in-fighting and strife within his own government, on top of a difficult cohabitation with the notoriously EU-sceptic President Václav Klaus. In EU politics, Topolánek will have to deal with the brunt force of the economic crisis and the future of the Treaty of Lisbon, the fate of which is in limbo since the Irish referendum of last year. On the international level, the New Year started off with two significant crises that require the immediate attention of European institutions: the violent conflict in Gaza and the Ukrainian-Russian struggle over gas supplies that has already had an adverse impact on some EU member countries. The Czech Presidency will thus have to deal with an astonishing number of pressing issues simultaneously – a major challenge in difficult times.

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