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| | Name: | Delegation of the European Commission to the Czech Republic | | City: | Prague 6 | | Address: | Pod Hradbami 17 | | Zip/Postal Code: | 106 00 | | Phone Number: | Click to reveal420 224 312 835 | | Fax Number: | 420 224 312 850 | | URL / Website: | Click to Launch |
In 1988, as the Cold War was ending, the European Community (as it then was) established official relations with the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. In this rapidly changing environment, the European Commission opened its Delegation in Prague in 1992.
Contractual agreements, such as the "Trade and Co-operation Agreement", and then the "Europe Agreement" were agreed. They formally define the relations between the Czech Republic and the European Union and lay down the rules and regulations to be respected by both sides as far as trade, economic, business and financial relations are concerned.
They provide for regular discussions on specific issues, high level meetings of senior officials, agreed ways of dealing with any problems that arise, and they act as the umbrella for the Czech Republic's preparation for EU membership.
At the same time the European Commission put in place the world's largest grant assistance program supporting the reform in Central and Eastern Europe, known as Phare. Today Phare reaches beyond the initial objective of providing support to the democratic and economic transformation of the country and has become the main financial instrument helping the Czech Republic on the road to membership.
The Member States of the European Union first decided in 1993 in Copenhagen that the countries of central and eastern Europe could join the European Union if they fulfilled a number of criteria . The Czech Republic responded to this in 1996 by applying for membership. Since then the relations between the European Union and the Czech Republic concentrate on preparations for Czech accession to the European Union. Official negotiations for membership were launched on 31st March 1998 after the European Commission's positive Opinion on the Czech application was endorsed by the Member States in Luxembourg in December 1997.
Based on the different areas identified in this Opinion, the Commission drafted an Accession Partnership, laying out a series of priority to ensure that the Czech Republic will be thoroughly prepared to assume the obligations of EU Membership. This Partnerships is a map of the road ahead, warning of danger areas which need to be dealt with before the country can continue on its way. As a way of working out precisely how the Czech Republic will travel along that road, the Czech Government prepared a National Programme for the Preparation of the Czech Republic for membership known as the NPAA. The NPAA is updated each year and outlines the Czech Government's plans for the reform of the legislation, the economy, the civil service, and many other areas that have to be reformed, updated, modernised or strengthened if the Czech Republic is to benefit from membership. The results of these preparations are catalogued every year by the European Commission in its Regular Report to the Council, a document which is made public.
While the Czech Republic is undergoing a difficult process of internal preparation to get ready for membership, the European Union is also preparing itself for enlargement. An Intergovernmental Conference agreed in Nice, on 9 December 2000, on a new Treaty reforming the institutional framework of the European Union. This treaty has made it possible for the Union to welcome new members by, for example, extending the areas of qualified majority voting and reshaping the Commission for a future enlarged Union. The Nice Treaty also allocated the number of votes each future member would have in the Council, as well as the number of seats in the European Parliament. During the Nice Council, Member States also expressed their wish that new Member States take part in the next elections for the European Parliament in 2004.
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