FT: Czech Republic Considers Advantages for EU Candidates

The Czech Republic, the country that took over the EU presidency on 1 July 2022, intends to work on improvements of the EU enlargement processes in order to give certain advantages to the countries which are candidates for EU membership, Financial Times (FT) writes. According to Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavsky, the candidate countries should be given “something practical” that would improve the positions of the EU in the respective country and will bring it economic contributions, since the process of accession in the EU tends to be very long. As FT writes, official Prague is ready to host this October an informal summit of EU and non-EU states. FT goes on to conclude that these positions of the Czech Republic reflect the fact that the EU, faced with the Russian attack over democratic values in Europe, can no longer allow itself to take a defensive stance and must demonstrate liberal order based on the rules and principles EU itself proclaims.