Foto: ČTK

Van Rompuy has now visited all EU member states, and the Czech Republic was his last stop. The principal aim of his tour of the member states is to coordinate key issues to be tackled on the EU level in the coming year.

Van Rompuy first met with Prime Minister Jan Fischer (pictured, right), who told reporters afterwards that their talks centered on economic issues. “We spoke about the draft EU economic strategy through to 2010, and we agreed that the document must be discussed intensively on the top level. I welcomed Herman Van Rompuy’s proposal that three to five principal targets should be set,” Fischer said, adding that those targets should be formulated to allow verification and that a regular assessment of the strategy’s implementation should be carried out.          

Measures to counter the economic crisis and proposals to reform regulation of the financial sector are due to be discussed at an unofficial summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Feb. 11.

“Europe requires a unique social model. If we want to preserve the European lifestyle, we have to ensure economic growth,” Van Rompuy said after the meeting with Fischer.      

Van Rompuy and Fischer also discussed climate and environmental issues and agreed that the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen last December had essentially been a failure and called for fresh initiatives without elaborating on what they might be. The two also said they had discussed coordination of EU efforts to assist earthquake-stricken Haiti. 

In the afternoon Van Rompuy met with President Václav Klaus. “I still don’t think anything about those posts,” Klaus said prior to the meeting. He was referring to the EU president and foreign minister posts created by the Lisbon Treaty, which Klaus staunchly opposed. Klaus was the last head of state to sign the treaty.

He also made it clear that he did not expect to find much, if any, common ground with the former Belgian prime minister. “I will receive this high-ranking representative of the EU in a way I have received other high officials over many years. The fact that my idea of what the EU should look like differs from his is a different matter,” Klaus said on the eve of the visit. 

When welcoming Van Rompuy at Prague Castle in front of journalists, Klaus refused to answer a question about how he intended to address the EU president, whose official title is permanent chairman of the European Council.  

Fischer has been more positive about the treaty and the new posts it created. “The Lisbon Treaty is no end to something,” Fischer said, adding that relations between the European Parliament, the European Commission, the EU president and the presiding country are going to be outlined now.

Klaus’ stance against the EU runs counter to popular opinion. A poll by research agency STEM released last week showed nearly two-thirds of Czechs are satisfied with their country being a member of the EU. But nearly three in five people believe that the Czech Republic does not play an active part in the EU and that it is unable to push through its stances on the European level.