Foreign Relations

From 1 January 2009 till 30 June 2009 the Czech Republic held presidency in the EU Council. The main priorities of the Czech Presidency were accomplished - included climate protection, reduction of industrial emissions, sustainable consumption and production, and biodiversity protection. The MoE closely worked on their elaboration and implementation together with France and Sweden, whose presidencies preceded and followed the Czech Republic’s, in order to maintain a continuity of the negotiations.

The Czech Republic also represented the Union towards international partners. In the environmental area, this meant mainly acting on behalf of the EU at conferences of parties to international treaties and conferences of international organisations. This required preparatory co-ordination meetings of the EU Member States as well as numerous bilateral contacts with key global partners.

Besides presidency issues, the MoE maintains bilateral co-operation with many countries. The most intensive relations are maintained with Germany, Austria, France and the Visegrad Countries. The MoE also extended co-operation with non-EU countries, partly connected with the implementation of development assistance projects in those countries. Collaboration among experts is highly developed and mutual experience exchange takes place.