Tsjechisch minister-president en EU-voorzitter Topolánek hield chat (en)

Barack Obama i, Entropa, Gaza and the Lisbon Treaty – these are some of the topics you have asked about in the European chat. You can read the responses of Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek i in this article.

You will find other questions answered by the Prime Minister in their respective language versions of the chat - Czech and English.

Jon Borne, 20. 1. 2009, 12:39

Mr Prime Minister, will Barack Obama visit Europe during the Czech EU presidency? Are you taking any steps to arrange his official visit in Prague? Would it be Obama's first trip to Europe? Thank you.

reply, 20. 1. 2009, 16:11

Barack Obama will probably come to the G-20 meeting in London where the Czech Republic will represent the EU as its Presidency. Later he should also attend the NATO Summit in Strasbourg which will deal with security issues. We will try to convene an informal meeting of the 27 Member States where issues such as climate change and energy security could be discussed. Obama´s Administration has been postponing decisions on issues like this until after his inauguration. If we manage to organise an informal summit with the new American President it would not be his official visit to Prague. This visit would have a different format.

sergeiev, 20. 1. 2009, 12:56

Hello Mr. Topolanek. Please do you personally like Entropa? Do you think - in retrospect - that it was a good idea to use it to represent your presidency?

reply, 20. 1. 2009, 16:31

It would have been a truly good idea if the authors of the individual parts of the sculpture representing various countries had been artists from those respective countries. It would have represented a kind of self-reflection over how we view our own selves. The fact that the author chose to bypass this condition and deceived the employer cast a negative shadow over the whole project. All sculptures are hyperbolic, highly sarcastic and for someone even totally unacceptable. Publicly, my position on them is strongly neutral. Privately, I laugh like everybody else.

Kirsten Moeller, 20. 1. 2009, 13:11

Mr. Topolanek, what is your personal plan (as leading country of the EU) to do about the confict in Gaza? Do you have any plans, which you think could solve the problems?

reply, 20. 1. 2009, 16:26

The plan of the Czech Republic even prior to the conflict was to strengthen the role of the EU in resolving this problem. The conflict itself only highlighted these efforts of ours. We can no longer follow the well-known saying - Europe has been always a good payer but not a player. Our plan is simple: Jointly with large European countries we should start the humanitarian aid, get the smuggling of arms and military material under control, whether it be by sea or land, try to adopt a long-term economic and development plan in this area, widen the scope of the development activities in the region and reinforce the role of the Palestinian Authority in the process of building the Palestinian state.

Lenka Cíglerová, 20. 1. 2009, 13:52

Hello, Prime Minister. Are you attempting to convince ODS Members of the Parliament and Senators to support the Lisbon treaty in any systematic way?

reply, 20. 1. 2009, 16:32

I am a proponent of personal example. I have stated that I would vote for the Lisbon Treaty because I had already signed it. Regarding my colleagues, I consider this decision as their constitutional right and constitutional duty. I will absolutely not convince anyone personally in this matter. I don’t think that I would have more success if I put such pressure on them.