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Summary for: 22 years in the EU: What has worked for Czechia and what hasn't“World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it,” starts the history-making speech of Robert Schuman, then France’s foreign minister, of May 9, 1950.
More than 75 years later, the warning remains as relevant as ever. As EU citizens across the continent celebrate Europe Day, we look back at what’s changed since Czechia joined.
Welcome to the EU
Back in the 1990s, more than 80 percent of Czechs were eager to join the European community. “At that time, it was a distant goal, a kind of symbol of our country belonging to the West – it was more of an abstract idea than a concrete one,” recalled Jan Hartl, founder of the STEM polling agency.
In the 2003 referendum, still more than three-quarters of people voted yes, paving the way for the Czech Republic’s membership, effective on May 1, 2004, in the bloc’s largest enlargement wave since its creation.
But this apparent overwhelming majority had a caveat: just 55 percent of eligible Czechs voted in the referendum. In absolute numbers, some 3.5 million voters said yes to EU membership, and more than one million said no.
Mixed feelings
That may have foreshadowed what would come next. For years, and partly a result of Vaclav Klaus’ constant criticism during his presidency (2003-2013), arguing that EU integration threatened national sovereignty and democratic accountability, Czechs have ranked among the most Eurosceptic nations on the continent.
The European sovereign debt crisis and the migration crisis of 2015 also played a part in accentuating, in many people’s mind, the EU’s inherent weaknesses or failures.
Bendy bananas. It’s one of Europe’s most enduring myths. Exaggerated on the Brexit campaign trail for electoral gains, it refers to an EU regulation setting sales and marketing standards for bananas that should be “free from malformation and abnormal curvature.” Obviously, the EU wasn’t trying to ban curvy and bendy bananas, but it has remained a powerful symbol used by skeptics to criticize the EU’s bureaucratic and over-regulatory tendencies.
Today, just about one-third of citizens see the EU positively, and less than two-thirds acknowledge that EU membership has benefitted the country.
“European politics is still understood here as foreign,” explained political scientist Petr Weiss. “Politicians do not explain it, do not pay attention to it, do not understand it. And if the political elite does not understand something, the public cannot understand it either.”
Market power
For all its perceived faults and imperfections, the EU has also come with clear, tangible benefits for Czechia. Despite many grievances, those actually advocating to leave the EU remain a small minority, both within the population and among politicians.
On the economic side of things, Czechia largely got what it came for. Direct access to the common market has been a driving force of growth for its export-driven economy, where about 80 percent of exports now go to another EU country.
Who represents Czechia in Brussels? At the European Council level, it is of course Prime Minister Andrej Babis who speaks for the Czech Republic, also represented in Brussels by its Permanent Representative to the EU, ambassador Vladimír Bärtl. Every member state also has one EU Commissioner. For Czechia, that’s Jozef Síkela, Commissioner for International Partnerships. Finally, 21 Czech MEPs sit in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, defending Czech interests depending on their respective political families.
According to the Czech Confederation of Industry and Transport, close to 90 percent of companies and business leaders see EU membership as beneficial.
In over two decades, Czech GDP per capita has almost tripled, although economic and financial disparities with wealthier countries remains a concern for many, and the population’s overwhelming opposition to the euro currency means that any push in that direction may very well amount to political suicide.
Tangible benefits
At the same time, the Czech Republic received over CZK 2 trillion from EU funds, more than twice what it contributed, meaning a net financial gain of over CZK 1 trillion.
From roads, railways, hospitals, natural parks, and more, this money has flowed into countless infrastructure and modernization projects in every corner of the country.
Joining the EU and, a few years later, the Schengen Area also came with one of the most obvious upsides: freedom of movement and travel.
More than 400,000 Czechs have studied abroad as part of the Erasmus program, for example. Vice versa, more than 250,000 EU citizens are estimated to live in Czechia today.
What comes next
The EU looks very different today than it did when Czechs joined 22 years ago. And in part because of EU membership, Czechia too looks very different than it did two decades ago.
And more change is to come. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that what was long taken for granted can be reversed, fast. Freedom of movement in the Schengen area is under strain, war has come to the EU’s doorsteps, and relations with former allies have turned sour – to name just a few of the most pressing challenges.
Meanwhile, there are more and more talks of a multi-speed Europe, where some member states seek deeper integration – for example in the defense and military arena – while others choose to opt out.
These debates hold particular significance for smaller countries like Czechia. Inside a bloc with the weight of the EU behind it, a country of 11 million can punch well above its size, but only if it chooses to.
