Toespraak Commissievoorzitter Barroso over samenwerking tussen EU en Tsjechië met nieuwe Tsjechische premier (en)

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

It was indeed a pleasure to welcome here in the Commission Mr Petr Necas i, Prime Minister of Czech Republic.

Once again, I want to congratulate you on the occasion of your appointment and of the nomination of your cabinet of ministers.

We have had a very fruitful meeting with intensive discussions about the EU's current agenda, the priorities of the Czech government and our future cooperation. The Prime Minister and I also shared a useful exchange of views on the need of economic reforms both at the EU and national levels.

We notably discussed the importance of reinforcing the economic governance, the reforms, fiscal consolidation and I am very pleased to see a high degree of support from the Czech government. I stay confident that the Czech government will stand behind our new European policy for longer-run growth and job creation under the Europe 2020 strategy.

I have read carefully the programme of the Czech government and after discussing the issues with Prime Minister Necas, I appreciate his commitment to fiscal consolidation, to economic reform and to a more competitive Europe.

We agreed that it was necessary to build on the co-ordination between different EU actors and instruments that has been successful in responding to crises all over the world. Our economic interdependence makes it imperative for Member States to work closely together. I think the financial crisis has shown us how much we are interdependent globally and also at EU level. It is clear that we need a response to this degree of interdependence.

The Czech Republic's economic performance has been resilient and your reform efforts deserve our congratulations because the Czech Republic has been making progress in all those matters.

I also know that you announced a series of profound structural reforms in you country. The planned measures will focus on cutting bureaucracy, increasing the flexibility of the labour market, reforming the education system and developing the infrastructure. This programme is very ambitious and I wish you success. You may count on the Commission to support the objectives of the Czech Republic for next years.

I am looking forward for what I am sure will be a very useful and good cooperation between the Czech government and the European Commission.