Expectations for Czech EU presidency

Alrik Fassbauer said:

The town where my mother's family has lived for a long time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furth_im_Wald is located near to the Czech border, but apart from that, I don't know too much of the country.
Only about the split with Slowenia.

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You know even less than you thought, they split from Slovakia

Seriously I think it is sad that the Czechs were separated from free central Europe for such a long time, the country was relatively developed prior to 1938. Central Europe still has a lot of healing to go through.

Zaleukos said:

Seriously I think it is sad that the Czechs were separated from free central Europe for such a long time, the country was relatively developed prior to 1938. Central Europe still has a lot of healing to go through.

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Even much more than relatively developed. The so called "First republic" was one of the most developed and advanced countries in the world. But Hitler and especially then the Communists buried it all..

But far worse is what the communism did to soul and thinking of my nation, to his morale...

Walp, doesn't look like the Czech EU presidency is to a very good start:

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech foreign minister said on Sunday a previous comment by a Czech spokesman that Israel's land assault in the Gaza Strip was "defensive, not offensive" was a misunderstanding.

The comments by a European Union presidency spokesman on Saturday suggested disunity in the EU and sparked condemnation from the Palestinians. The Czech Republic took over the rotating EU presidency from France on January 1.

"The statement from him yesterday was a misunderstanding," Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said in a live television debate.

He said the only valid EU presidency position was a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry late on Saturday which called for a ceasefire and facilitation of humanitarian aid.

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Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5031DU20090104

With an anti-EU head of state we might be up for some entertainment: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5430362.ece .

The Czech president is mostly ceremonial. Klaus might produce some laughs but his actual impact will be limited.

Well, they're exceeding *my* expectations. The Czech government just commissioned and exhibited an artwork in the European Council buildings in Brussels. It's called "Entropa." It has little vignettes of all of the EU countries.

Bulgaria is a toilet.
Germany is a set of motorways looking a bit like a swastika.
France is "on strike."
The Netherlands is a bunch of drowning minarets.
Poland has a bunch of monks in a potato field raising the gay pride flag.
Romania is a Dracula theme park.
Luxemburg is "for sale."
Britain is absent.
Sweden is neatly packaged in a compact, flat cardboard box.
And so on.

I find it utterly hilarious -- and even funnier the screams of outrage coming from all over Brussels. Go Czech!

Also, the description and explanation on the official pages is complete BS, which makes it even better.

[ http://www.eu2009.cz/en/news-and-do...ereotypes-are-barriers-to-be-demolished-5634/ ]

Edit: Please, please "czech" out the PDF linked from the page above -- it's a magnificent, glorious stream of utterly bald-faced bullshitting -- what the artist did to get this masterpiece sailing right through the bureaucracy and into the European Council offices. (Specifically, it's a collection of texts from the entirely fictional artists who supposedly contributed to the work, explaining each of them in turn.)