The Czech Republic no longer has the reputation as a troublemaker in the European Union, and is now being listened to more by other member states, outgoing Czech ambassador to the EU Edita Hrda told CTK in an interview.
Brussels has also understood, in view of the very successful second Czech EU presidency, that the country has excellent and highly qualified experts, said Hrda, who is leaving her post at the end of January after four and a half years, and will be replaced by the current ambassador to Luxembourg, Vladimir Bartl, at the beginning of February. On her return to the Czech Republic, Hrda is expected to focus on EU enlargement.
Hrda, 61, took up her post as ambassador to the EU at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and many other challenges, as well as the Czech presidency of the European Council in the second half of 2022.
“I think we have experienced more in Brussels than several generations before us. The past five years have been marked by the European Union not doing what it wanted to do, but what it had to do. It was a bit of crisis management,” said Hrda.
However, she continued, the view is beginning to emerge that the EU is responding much better under pressure, and citizens are becoming more aware of what it serves and can serve. “The most difficult period was when we had to realise that a war was being waged in Europe and that it was terribly close. And we also had to learn to exist with that as a condition that will not be short-term,” she said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in the morning of 24 February 2022.
“We had information that something like this could happen. It was strange to see who was willing to believe that something like this could happen, and when it broke out, how we all started to react automatically, how the leaders united, and how quickly we were able to make the first decisions,” said Hrda, describing the first days of the war.
“We had been preparing certain sanctions since the end of December and the beginning of January. We did analyses, the European Commission was very active, we had several meetings at the level of ambassadors in a very strict regime and the first package of sanctions was adopted very quickly,” she added.
The EU has so far adopted 15 sanctions packages against Russia, with the 16th now being drafted. But the unity that prevailed at the beginning is not as visible, as Hungary and Slovakia in particular have reservations about the sanctions.
“As I said before, we are able to come to an agreement very quickly when we are under pressure and we know what our goal is and what we have to do. But when we have different alternatives and different interests, it is more complicated,” said Hrda, who served as the Czech Republic’s permanent representative to the UN from 2011 to 2015. She then became the managing director for the Americas at the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU diplomatic service.
“With time, however, I can see that though ïn the very beginning, when I started as the ambassador, I had the feeling that we could not and maybe even did not want to agree, that the member states were not even able to listen to each other, thanks to the coronavirus, and especially with the war, the situation has really changed a lot, and the will to reach agreement is definitely there,” she noted.
She said another important thing she had learnt in Brussels, which was also a feature of the Czech EU presidency, was that it is much better to discuss issues, wait a while and find a broader consensus than to push things through in a hard manner at any cost. “When a decision is taken that is forced, and a large part of the member states do not feel comfortable with it, those decisions do not last long and changes start being sought,” Hrda said.
According to her, the Czech presidency was typical in that “we tried to reach a consensus that all member states could agree with.”
Hrda also noted the moment when the Czechs took a risk at the end of the presidency, against recommendations, and combined three unresolved agendas into one package, which foreign journalists called a “big deal”, namely the financing of Ukraine, sanctions against Russia and Belarus, and respect for the rule of law.
“It was also unique in that for the first time in EU history, national leaders waited during the European Council for the permanent representatives to approve the procedure,” she said. “There were several countries that disagreed with one, two or three things, but we managed to reach a point that they were willing to accept a compromise.”
At that time, the decision was made in writing and all EU countries had to agree on all three issues, otherwise the whole “big deal” would fall apart. “It was quite dramatic, but everything worked out well and we were very much appreciated for that,” she added.
She also said it was thanks to the successful presidency that many Czechs started to receive job offers in European institutions. Both the Permanent Representation in Brussels and the Government Office in Prague focus on supporting Czech staff in this respect.
Asked about the Czech Republic’s reputation in Brussels, Hrda said it was most important for the country to shed its reputation as a troublemaker. “Even if we sometimes promote views that are not quite mainstream in Brussels, they listen to us, because our words have been proven right several times,” she said.
It has become apparent that the Czech Republic has quality experts who can defend their opinions and have well-founded arguments. “It was a great honour to lead the team in Brussels during the presidency, an immense pleasure,” she added.
During her more than four years in office, Hrda learned the importance of listening, finding compromises and proposing solutions that will lead to a goal, she told CTK.
Speaking about handing over the office to her successor, she noted that they had enough time to share everything and to prepare for the change. “To hand over such a big office is not easy, it cannot happen in three or four days,” Hrda said, adding that she wished him every success.
Hrda will head back to Prague after nine years. She is due to deal with the enlargement of the European Union, and is just awaiting the final approval, she said. The Czech Republic is a big supporter of the enlargement of the current EU-27 and now is a good time to try to help accomplish this goal, she concluded.
