The Czech Government has decided that next month’s EU leaders’ summit in Brussels will be chaired by prime minister Jan Fischer rather than its president Vaclav Klaus.
The announcement should calm the nerves of EU diplomats, who feared the eurosceptic president could prompt a public relations disaster over his opposition to the Lisbon Treaty.
“A decision was made today by the Government that Mr Fischer would chair the EU leaders’ summit. It is normal practice under the Czech rules,” said a Czech diplomat yesterday.
Concern over Mr Klaus’s attendance at the summit is one of the reasons the Government is fast tracking work on its legal guarantees on the Lisbon Treaty to try to get a political agreement among EU states before the summit begins. There will also be considerable relief in Germany, which had floated the possibility of holding a summit in July to finalise work on the guarantees to avoid a showdown with Mr Klaus.
Earlier this week Mr Fischer – an interim prime minister appointed following the collapse of the previous administration – said he wanted to chair the summit but had not reached agreement with Mr Klaus.
Czech diplomats said a deal was struck yesterday that would enable Mr Fischer to chair the European Council.
The decision, however, is unlikely to change the Government’s strategy of fast-tracking talks on the legal guarantees on abortion, neutrality and taxation.