Opening Message Dear Readers, You have in your hands the fifth Report on the Foreign Policy of the Czech Republic, which was prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and summarises the Czech foreign policy in 2003. You can see how the Czech diplomacy put into practice the Concept of Foreign Policy of the Czech Republic for 2003 – 2006, which the government approved in March 2003, and how it conducted itself in the overall context of international affairs. On 17 April 2003 the Czech Republic signed the Treaty of Accession to the European Union. In the following referendum, the majority of citizens of the country supported EU accession. One of the priority tasks of Czech foreign policy since the 1989 revolution is thus nearing fruition. Our active participation in sessions of the Council of the European Union and in the preparation of the European Union’s Constitutional Treaty and our constructive work at sessions of the Intergovernmental Conference in 2003 have already demonstrated that we would be a worthy member of the EU. We have also been working on two other foreign policy priorities: strengthening Euro- Atlantic ties and furthering friendly relations with our neighbours; these relations are indeed very positive and friendly. The Czech Republic honoured its commitments stemming from NATO membership and put great effort into the war the international community is waging on international terrorism. On the multilateral forum, the Czech Republic successfully completed its presidency of the 57th General Assembly of the United Nations. This publication brings information on these and many other aspects of Czech foreign policy during 2003. Cyril Svoboda Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic 1 INTRODUCTION 2003 was a highly specific year for the Czech Republic and its foreign service. The country was well aware of the increased responsibility it would have to shoulder as it took the final steps before joining the EU and as the fight against international terrorism intensified. These expectations soon became reality. The international campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan and other threats linked to the war on terror, as well as the final negotiations with European authorities and preparation of the referendum, presented a number of challenges to Czech foreign policy, challenges that required appropriate responses. The fact that the Czech Republic’s internal political scene was stable helped achieve the goals set. The government coalition continued in its work, albeit with the backing of a very small parliamentary majority. Václav Havel’s departure from the office of President of the Republic in February heralded a major change for Czech foreign policy. V. Havel played a crucial role in the establishment of a free and democratic Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic and in the country’s return to the fold of developed European democracies. V. Havel’s contribution to the Czech state and its foreign policy ranks him among the most important figures in Czech history. In March, Václav Klaus took up the office of President and the foreign policy tasks stemming from this function. Foreign policy activities in Czech Parliament were very extensive. Serious debates conducted in Parliament on a wide variety of foreign policy topics made clear its profound interest in the state’s foreign policy. The role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was to make the best possible use of all this foreign policy potential in order to present positively and assert the interests of the republic in accordance with the Euro-Atlantic alliance and European integration. The Czech Republic continued to stabilise its position on the international scene in 2003, chiefly in the process of European integration and Euro-Atlantic co-operation. The government concentrated on pursuing an active foreign policy designed to strengthen further the international standing of the Czech Republic. The main principles of Czech foreign policy continue to be asserting and defending the Czech Republic’s vital interests, with the emphasis on the broadest possible consensus among domestic political 2 factions. The Czech Republic’s foreign policy was based on the Government Policy Statement of August 2002 and the Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Czech Republic for 2003-2007, which was defined in March 2003. The main focus of attention was developing bilateral relations, as well as participation in multilateral activities as part of international organizations, conferences and other multilateral meetings. Another focus was the assertion of Czech national interests in other areas – economic, cultural and public interests, including relations at non- governmental level. Czech foreign policy ensured that measures and sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council were implemented and that Czech law conformed to the law of the European Communities. The Czech Republic also played an active role in the war on international terrorism. In December 2003 the government amended the Security Strategy of the Czech Republic. Security strategy was updated in response to the changes in the international security environment and in line with the integration processes taking place in the Euro-Atlantic zone. The new strategy is fully compatible with the Security Strategy of the European Union, which was also adopted in December 2003. The signing of the Treaty of Accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union was a historical moment in the European integration process, in Czech foreign policy and in the history of Czech statehood. The signing took place at an extraordinary session of the European Council in Athens on 16 April 2003. In a referendum held on 13 June 2003 and 14 June 2003, Czech citizens supported their country’s accession to the European Union on the terms negotiated in the Accession Treaty. 77.3% of the 55.2% of the population that took part in the referendum voted in favour of accession. The Accession Treaty was subsequently ratified by the President of the Republic on 30 September 2003. 2003 also saw the start of negotiations on enlargement of the European Economic Area (EEA), which culminated in the signing of the Agreement on the Participation of the Czech Republic in the European Economic Area in November 2003. The Czech Republic’s preparations for EU entry continued throughout 2003, touching on all areas of state administration. From April 2003 onwards, Czech representatives took part in the work of EU institutions at all levels as observers. In its monitoring report from the start of November 2003 the European Commission declared that the Czech Republic was ready to join and identified certain problem areas where it demanded that reforms be accelerated. 3 The fundamental debate on the future of the European Union continued with the active involvement of the Czech Republic. In the first half of the year the debate took place in the Convention and from October 2003 in the Intergovernmental Conference. The Convention, and the ensuing Intergovernmental Conference, became the first forums in the EU in which Czech representatives could take full part and present the Czech Republic’s vision of the future of European integration. The Convention formulated the Draft Treaty Establishing a European Constitution. The Intergovernmental Conference on the Future Arrangement of the EU debated the draft and other instruments designed to simplify the array of European treaties and make the arrangement of powers within the EU more transparent. Given the persisting differences in opinions on the institutional arrangement of the EU, the Intergovernmental Conference was not closed at the Brussels summit in December 2003; it was decided that it would continue in 2004. The successful culmination of the Czech Republic’s accession talks with the European Union and the signing of the Accession Treaty intensified parliamentary co-operation between the CR and the EU. The EU-Czech Republic Joint Parliamentary Committee continued its dialogue with deputies of the European Parliament; and once the Accession Treaty was signed, Czech deputies and senators started to operate as observers in the European Parliament. In 2003 the Czech Republic also took part in preparing the new financial outlook of the European Union, supported the European Pro-Growth Initiative and was actively involved in the process of reforming the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU. The Czech Republic also played a role in preparing a number of key EU positions and standpoints in the human rights working group of the Council of the European Union and in formulating principles of foreign development co-operation as one of the priorities of the EU’s external relations. The Czech Republic is gradually increasing its development aid and bringing its mechanisms and magnitude closer to the systems that operate in developed donor countries. EU countries continued to be the Czech Republic’s key trading partners in 2003. Czech exports to EU countries rose by 1.5% over 2002 levels, reaching CZK 957.6 billion (69.8% of total exports); imports from EU countries were worth CZK 854.2 billion (59.2% of total imports). This represented a continuation of the Czech Republic’s traditional balance of trade surplus, which amounted to CZK 103.3 billion in 2003. As in previous years, Germany remained the Czech Republic’s biggest trading partner: 37% of all Czech exports headed to and one-third of all Czech imports came from Germany. Austria, Italy and France continued to be the next most important partners of the Czech economy. 4 Accession to the European Union, the referendum and related campaign presented a fundamental challenge to the government’s communication strategy. In the first half of 2003, that strategy focused on the internal communication strategy, whose aim was to ensure that the referendum on the Czech Republic’s accession to the European Union was successful. The strategy sought to ensure that the entire Czech public was given relevant information through educational courses, projects and programmes, in the media, on the Internet and also through direct contact in dozens of regional and municipal information centres.