Building leverage at the EU level? Specialisation and coherence in Czech policy on Eastern European transition

De-Europeanisation of Czech policy towards Eastern Partnership countries under populist leaders

“…Four out of six EaP countries became priority recipients of Czech development and transition cooperation assistance, surpassing, as a region, Western Balkans as the main target of Czech funding (cf. Weiss 2018). The ministry also created the position of a Special Envoy for EaP.…”

“…The Eastern Partnership itself was launched in Prague during a dedicated summit under the Czech presidency of the Council in 2009, and Czechs managed to secure the enlargement and neighbourhood portfolio for their nominee in the second Barroso Commission in 2010-2014. The Czechs were eager to assist the Eastern neighbours in their transition to democracy and strengthening ties with the EU (Weiss 2011(Weiss , 2018Ünal Eris 2013). At the EU level, the policy towards Eastern European countries has been firmly anchored in European values, particularly democracy, respect to human rights and fundamental freedoms, the rule of law and a common approach, making it an even more interesting case to study from the perspective of potential de-Europeanisation.…”