CZECH PRESIDENCY 2019/2020
For the Visegrad Presidency, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic has identified as key to addressing the future form of the CAP and the dual quality of food. Given the challenges of climate change and bark beetle calamity, it is also a priority to focus on discussions on EU forest policy, along with the possibility of using bioeconomy, agroforestry and other approaches. The Ministry also considers water and soil management as an equally important topic to be addressed in the coming period.
The Czech Presidency will follow up on the Slovak Presidency programme. It will advocate a rational, pragmatic and constructive approach to the challenges and problems, which our countries and the whole Europe are facing. It will support efforts contributing to the stability of our continent, including EU enlargement and the European Neighbourhood Policy.
The Czech Presidency’s overall aim is to strengthen the Visegrad Group’s position in the EU and NATO while fostering unity and cohesion of the two organisations. The Visegrad Group should thus contribute to the building of a strong, effective, competitive and secure Europe based on the values of democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and freedoms, as well as on the principles of subsidiarity, proportionality and sustainability.
Priority areas of interest to the Czech Presidency
Reasonable solutions
This area includes in particular the main crosscutting topics: deepening of the Single Market and preservation of its four freedoms, support of the EU’s enlargement to the Western Balkans, promotion of the EU Eastern Neighbourhood Policy, cooperation in the area of security and defence and encouragement of people-to-people contacts and civil societies in V4 countries and their wider neighbourhood.
Revolutionary technologies – innovative economy and its social impacts
In this priority area the Czech Presidency will concentrate on support for research, development and innovation (especially innovative business and so-called smart investments) and on access to sources of financing (especially exchange of experiences of V4 countries and partner countries with regard to the use of EU funding for science, research and innovation, and preparation for the post-2020 programming period).
The Czech Presidency will support the development of an innovative ecosystem (especially start-ups and scale-ups) and capital markets to increase investment in innovation, knowledge transfer and research-business linkages.
Under this priority area, the Czech Presidency will also facilitate the strengthening of V4 cooperation in the field of space activity.
Furthermore, one of the priorities of the Czech Presidency in this area will be sufficient labour supply and prospects for labour in times of technological change and digital transformation (Work 4.0).
Reconciling approaches
The Czech Presidency will try to deepen political and practical cooperation and coordination of their positions with the goal to contribute to finding the comprehensive solution in the future migration and asylum policies, including their internal as well as external dimensions and to focus on strengthening of the EU external border protection in order to ensure security of EU citizens and proper functioning of the Schengen area.
The Czech Presidency will also attempt to continue regional cooperation on infrastructure connections including intended for alternative fuels in transport and energy policy, especially nuclear energy.
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