EU Council presidency makes Czechs more pro-European

The Czech EU presidency ends on Tuesday. The left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau takes stock of the last six months: "The Czechs may not have made a brilliant job of their EU Council presidency, but it was not a complete failure either. And after six months at the helm of the EU the country is more pro-European than before and Euroscepticism is clearly diminishing. … Although no one would have believed it, there were highlights during the presidency. For instance the mediation in the gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia was a success for the Czechs. And at the EU's Eastern enlargement Conference where the accession of the Balkan states and also Ukraine were discussed the Prague government was a respected mediator between East and West. … The presidency has promoted the pro-European stance of the Czechs, it was only the image of the country's politicians that suffered."

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