The Czech presidency is leaking like a pierced basket…
(B2) After the minutes of a meeting between Prime Minister Topolanek and the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, who found himself in the press (1), other documents have recently fallen into the basket of media, in particular an interview between the Minister for European Affairs, Alexandr Vondra and his French counterpart, Jean-Pierre Jouyet and another with the Deputy Secretary General of the Council, Pierre de Boissieu, which took place at the end of October 2008 in Brussels, quite raw stripping... Two interviews revealed by the news website, euro.cz.
The flight to the top of the state? The National Security Office /NBU/ is investigating these leaks... But one can reasonably wonder - given the limited number of people normally to whom these notes are addressed (normally about fifteen) -, if the person at the origin of his leaks - which undoubtedly destabilize the Topolonak government - would not be at the highest level of the State, in the entourage of President Vaclav Klaus, for example, who has made it his business to display a populist criticism of Europe.
The Deputy Secretary General of the Council doubts the fate of the next Irish referendum
Protocol on neutrality. Asked by Alexandr Vondra about possible responses to Ireland's requests, Pierre de Boissieu replied that there are several possibilities on which the Council's legal service is working. A separate protocol can assure Ireland that it can maintain its policy of neutrality. As far as taxation is concerned, this area will remain – after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty – subject to the unanimous approval of EU Member States, so that its tax policy for Ireland can continue to hold”.
Referendum lost in Ireland? More Pierre de Boissieu remains pessimistic about the fate ofa new referendum. The transcript of the conversation shows it. Ireland is going through a difficult economic situation. “Heavily affected by the crisis
(increase in the budget deficit from 7 to 8% of the initial surplus, doubling of unemployment, economic slowdown to 2%), it is almost impossible for Ireland in a referendum to approve the new Treaty of Lisbon”, mentions the minutes of the meeting. "Prime Minister Cowen's support has dropped by 20% and his situation is very difficult,” explains De Boissieu. (a statement that mirrors data from pundits who fear that the Irish government will be swept away in June, or as the referendum turns on the other hand, if it manages to hold)»
It's up to the Czech Presidency to rise to the occasion ! The
again, Pierre Boissieu speaks a frank language. After the French presidency and the clear crisis leadership of Nicolas Sarkozy, it is a fact that the Czech Prime Minister Topolánek does not have the same profile, and that the Czech Republic as " new Member State will have less influence than a country like France”. To succeed, the first
Czech minister will therefore have to "actively resolve the most fundamental issues, such as the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the reduction of the European Commission under the Nice Treaty, economic and financial issues and energy security “, explained the European diplomat during this working lunch.
(NGV)
(1) First presented as a forgery, it revealed in fairly crude language - very realistic when you know how the French president expresses himself - a division of roles between the French and Czech presidencies in the geopolitics of the moment (the East passing under the responsibility of the Czechs, the Mediterranean and Africa remaining led by the French)
