Czech priorities for Brexit negotiations

On 12^th April, the EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier visited Prague, where he met Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Minister of Foreign Affairs Martin Stropnický, Minister of Industry and Trade Tomáš Hüner, members of the Committee on EU Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and several senators.

The Prime Minister expressed his support to the negotiating team of Michel Barnier. He was also pleased by the fact that the EU took into account the remarks of the Czech government, especially those related to the rights of citizens. According to the Prime Minister, there are around 50 000 Czech citizens living in the United Kingdom today, and therefore one of the main priorities for Czech government is to maintain their rights after Brexit. Furthermore, Prime Minister Babiš stressed the need to cooperate in the field of security, especially when it comes to information exchange, free movement of people and personal data flows.

The ideal scenario is to keep things as closely as possible to the current status even after Brexit. It is probably no surprise that the Czech Republic, as a very open and export oriented country has a positive trade balance with the UK as it is one of its most important business partners. Therefore, Czech businesses are equally as interested in the outcome of Brexit negotiations as the government. Czech businesses therefore urge the decision makers to evade the cliff-edge scenario that would significantly disrupt business cooperation with the UK.

As a first step, it is crucial to endorse the Brexit agreement that would also set up the transition period of at least two years. After that, it is necessary to negotiate a free trade agreement that would cover all the essential aspects of mutual trade cooperation. To name a couple of specific measures, businesses want to maintain the same standardization and homologation system that would significantly facilitate mutual trade relations, secure free flow of data and abidance of data protection rules, provide access to public procurement and ensure smooth intercompany transfers with fully coordinated social security systems.