RNN / EU negotiators caution on Czech readiness

Czech Republic

EU negotiators caution on Czech readiness

Prague / Czech Rep. (RNN Correspondent) 07.07.1998

Top European Union negotiators said on Tuesday the Czech Republic was insufficiently prepared to take on the mass of EU law needed to give foreign investors confidence. The Czech Republic is among five East European countries which began EU membership talks earlier this year. Teams are currently assessing how far Czech law accords with EU legislation before negotiations proper begin. "We have given a very strong signal that we do not believe that everything is in place in the Czech Republic to handle that enormous job of processing all that legislation and implementing it," chief EU negotiator Nikolaus van der Pas told reporters after talks with Czech leaders. EU officials, and their Czech counterparts, have long called for improvements within the Czech public administration but van der Pas said the judiciary also needed to speed up its work in adapting Czech law to EU standards. "It is only with that adaptation and continued reform that the business world will get enough confidence to invest, that the financial world will have enough confidencve to channel funds to the Czech Republic," he said. Van der Pas said it had to be clear that the Czech Republic was not moving away from convergence with EU law. He said a proposed law on lotteries, which would have banned foreign companies from running consumer competitions, did not conform with the aim of EU membership. Parliament approved the law but President Vaclav Havel vetoed it and sent it back to the chamber where it is expected to die in the days before the June 19-20 election. The European Commission has expressed concern at the Czech attitude to its Roma minority and van der Pas said EU negotiators had also drawn attention to proposals, reported in the Czech media, for two local authorities to segregate Roma from the rest of the population. "I have drawn the attention of our interlocutors to some disturbing stories concerning the Roma, fully aware that what we have read is nothing to do with government policy but nevertheless is a negative signal," he said. David Leigh, heading talks with the Czechs, said there was a need for more liberalisation and deregulation, for example in the area of telecommunications or energy policy. "There is a direct link between the economic reforms which the country needs in any event...and liberalisation in order to satisfy the demands of the internal market." All mainstream political parties support EU membership and van der Pas, who met party officials on Tuesday, said he did not expect the election to interfere with the accession process. "In the contacts we have had with the political parties this morning, I did not have the impression that there is a moving away from the main point -- that is the political determination ot get into the EU." The Czech Republic, among the most advanced countries in post-communist reform despite recent economic difficulties, still lags behind all EU members states. "The income gap between the Czech Republic and one of our member states is less the issue than the question of restructuring the economy and introducing into the economy the necessary dynamism," said Leigh.

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