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| Europe | |||
| Czechs at centre-stage as EU troublemaker, US ally | |||
| 2008-03-17 | |||
| Prague - For years, Poland was the European Union's prickliest post-communist nation. Now that role seems to be shifting to the Czech Republic, its smaller neighbour. With strong support for missile defences in Eastern Europe and a unilateral deal for Czechs to travel visa-free to the United States, the Prague government is on track to overtake Poland as the region's top US friend. "Most people expected that the Czech Republic will progress towards Europe and Poland against it," said Piotr Kaczynski, an analyst at the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies. "Now it is the other way around." By securing a separate US visa deal in Washington, the eurosceptic Czech government showed the 27-member EU's fragile unity and undermined the bloc's efforts to negotiate common travel rules with Washington. In effect, the Czechs gave up on Brussels after repeatedly asking the European Commission, the EU executive, to lobby the US to abolish visa requirements for US-friendly EU newcomers in the former Soviet bloc. "The Czechs have have become a US guinea pig in Europe that indicates how far it is possible to go," said political scientist Jiri Pehe, who heads New York University's branch in Prague. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek signed the visa deal in Washingon last month, pledging in return to help US efforts to track airline passengers. Estonia and Latvia followed Wednesday with US visa deals of their own.
Czech Vice Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra says the Poles, once the region's top US ally in supporting the Iraq war, should be thankful for Prague's initiative. "What we did will be - from a mid-term perspective - good for Poland as well," said Vondra, who also holds the European affairs portfolio. The shift is also apparent in Czech and Polish talks with Washington on hosting facilities for a US missile defence system. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has sought to mend relations with Brussels after the previous government's confrontational stance, has slowed down Warsaw's negotiations with the US. He is seeking US aid to modernize the Polish army in exchange for allowing 10 interceptor missiles to be placed in Poland.
"They are changing the message because they want to sign the agreements right now," Kaczynski said. Five years ago, Prague and Warsaw stood together in backing the US-led invasion of Iraq, driving a wedge through Europe. Both countries contributed forces - Czech troop numbers peaked at some 400, Poland's at 2,500. Poland emerged disillusioned from the Iraq experience, questioning whether it got enough in return from Washington. Tusk, who came to power after a sweeping election victory last year, reflects that mood. Topolanek, in a speech to a conservative Washington think tank during his recent visit, staunchly defended the US missile plan as a test case for keeping Russia's influence in its former satellites at bay. But loyalty has its limits. After a US State Department human rights report this week criticised the Czech Republic for its treatment of Roma and other points, Topolanek sniped back. "The country that enables torture of prisoners can hardly teach me abouthow human rights are being violated here," the Mlada Fronta Dnes newspaper quoted him Thursday as saying. | |||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #10 I'm in the market for a fiddle of victamolgy. Will pay top dollar, quality varnish a must. |
| Posted by: Zebulon Angavick7428 2008-03-17 14:54 |
| #9 We just shouldn't let them misunderstand how good a friend we'll be. Nato has done that. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-03-17 10:53 |
| #8 Unless we fail to support them now. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-03-17 10:52 |
| #7 It's hard to quantify the feeling of eastern Europeans to the US, but they are very deep. For all the time the Russian boot was on their back, western Europe was perfectly happy to sip coffee in bistros and enjoy the status quo, ignoring the suffering of their neighbors and equating America and the Soviet Union as equals. The US, however, let eastern Europe know that it at least hoped they would become free, even though it would be ruinous to directly confront the Soviet Union. Thing like the Voice of America radio were more precious than gold, and they regularly risked their lives for that lifeline of information. Smuggled bibles, printed in the US, became one of the most prized possessions of many families. Two generations grew up in that gigantic prison of hopelessness and despair. Not something easily or quickly forgotten. So while they have to live with the western Europeans, and reach some mutually beneficial agreements with them, they will long remember who their real friends are. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-03-17 10:40 |
| #6 The Czechs and Poles are wonderful folks and I wish them the best. But there are three important considerations in real estate, and geopolitics; location, location and location. Both countries are still caught between two historically expansionist major powers. Sure the German Army seems like a unionized welfare program. Now. The Soviet Union didn't look too hot in the 1920's either. I don't want to get sucked into another European war no matter how endearing one side is versus the other, and I have little doubt that one is coming. We should be extricating all troops from Europe. Period. And we need to send the English a message that they need to decide whether they want to be a province of Europe or a World Power. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-03-17 09:30 |
| #5 Now to impose visa requirements on "British", "French" and "German" citizens. Think hard on this you former peoples of Europe. Or get used to sticking your asses in the air and kissing the ground in the direction of Mecca. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2008-03-17 09:23 |
| #4 NS, entirely different circumstances. *** Roma, very musical people, playing the fiddles of victimology rather well. UK was very critical (to put it politely) of the alleged bad treatment of Roma in Czech Republic. Now Roma took it as an invitation and are on the move to greener pastures in UK. Laws of unintended consequences rule supreme and Czechs' natural sense of irony got a boost. *** Topolanek should know that the State Departmnent is a branch of institutionalized assholery and not take them too seriously. That snipe of his was a low retort. He should not rely on yuro media as his source of information. |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-03-17 09:08 |
| #3 Any country that goes against the conventional wisdom of the professional bureaucrats is a friend in my book. Poland and the Czechs make some good beer. I'll help stimulate their economies by buying some at the store today. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-03-17 07:54 |
| #2 The Czechs are a principled people. As hardworking as the Germans, but without the superior attitude. I'd much prefer to be connected to the Czech Republic and Poland than to Brussels. The former understand gratitude and fair exchange; they ask only opportunity, not a free ride. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-17 07:46 |
| #1 Poland and Czechoslovakia...why do those names together ring a bell? Let's not get sucked into Europe any further than we are now. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-03-17 07:07 |