Maria Berger (PSE). – (DE) Madam President, President-in-Office of the Council, I and some fellow Members present here today belonged to the group of MEPs from the Joint Parliamentary Committee who particularly promoted the cause of Czech membership in the period up to 2004. Therefore, being able to welcome a Czech Presidency for the first time makes today a special day for non-Czech MEPs, too. I might add from the point of view of an Austrian MEP that it was not always very popular to campaign in Austria for the accession of the Czech Republic. Thus, we are certainly among those who offer the Czech Presidency particular support and do not intend to attach too much importance to teething problems – the rather one-sided initial position on the Gaza conflict and the Czech President’s view that social and environmental standards are too high have already been mentioned. From an Austrian point of view, we are particularly hurt by the sympathetic reaction to Slovakia’s plans to restart Bohunice, which would be a clear infringement of existing EU law.

The excellent philosopher and writer Jiří Gruša has written a ‘User manual for the Czech Republic and Prague’, which I can only recommend to all my fellow Members as an enjoyable and extremely humorous read. As yet, there is no user manual for Europe in written form but, if one should ever be issued, all new Presidencies would be well advised not to turn down the support offered to them in Parliament or by the governments of neighbouring States.