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ABSTRACT
The article provides a qualitative in-depth analysis of Czech Brexit policy (that is, a Czech policy on Brexit). There are many reasons why one might expect Brexit to be a high-profile, politicized issue in Czech politics. Yet, as the article shows, this has not been the case. Rather, the issue of Brexit in Czech politics has been characterized by a low level of politicization, with the Czech position on Brexit having largely complied with the EU’s united front. Drawing upon the extant literature on Brexit and EU27 member states, the article discusses two main reasons for the low level of politicization of Brexit in Czech politics: (1) the character of Czech bilateral relations with the UK and (2) the degree of the country’s exposure to Brexit implications.
Notes
1 I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and thoughtful comments. Any remaining errors remain, of course, my responsibility.
2 The writing of this article was supported by the Grant Agency of Masaryk University through the “Perspectives of European Integration in the Context of Global Politics” project (MUNI/A/1025/2018).
3 This somewhat contrasts with the Czech Republic’s stance towards the UK’s renegotiations throughout late 2015 and early 2016. Even though the country strongly supported keeping the UK inside the EU, its support came with serious caveats. On the one hand, as there was a shared opinion amongst Czech political leaders that a Brexit would harm the EU as well as Czech interests, the country was generally sympathetic to David Cameron’s cause, supporting all four key parts of his ‘Britain’s new deal with Europe’ (on a condition that British demands would not require an EU treaty change), including deepening of the internal market, increasing competitiveness and equal treatment of Eurozone and non-Eurozone countries. On the other hand, it strongly opposed its most controversial element – the commitment to reduce the ‘unnatural draw’ (BBC, Citation2016) of the UK’s benefits system to citizens from the EU less well-off countries. Here, the Czech Republic aligned strongly with other Visegrad Group countries’ position of fierce opposition to Cameron’s proposals to put limits to EU migrants’ access to welfare benefits (Brusenbauch Meislová, Citation2019a). As such, the Visegrad Group countries were portrayed as ‘a major obstacle to the British EU reform proposals’ (Pacher, Citation2016, May 4), the ‘major stumbling bloc that thwarted David Cameron’s attempts’ (Foy & Byrne, Citation2016, October 5) and the main reason for Cameron’s renegotiation ‘hitting a bump’ (Bush, Citation2016, February 17). Yet, as the Czech government was content with the result, feeling that its concerns were finally reflected in the deal agreed at the February 2016 European Council, it gave its support to the text without its usual reservations (cf. Kammel et al., Citation2018; Kaniok, Citation2017, p. 42).
4 Of course, on closer inspection, the Czech government is not a monolithic, entirely uniform actor on Brexit, with different ministries naturally approaching the issue from slightly different angles. Yet, such an analysis – whilst providing a fruitful avenue for onward research – falls beyond the scope of this article.
5 In fairness, though, it should be added that the Czech government announced that it was counting on there being a reciprocal move (GOV CZ, Citation2018, Citation2019; MI, Citation2019).
6 The precise figure of Czech nationals resident in the UK is unclear, but the estimates range from 40,000 (MI, Citation2019) to almost 100,000 (MFA, Citation2018). Simultaneously, the country hosts only relatively few British citizens, with the estimates putting the number at 8,000 (GOV CZ, Citation2019).
7 By contrast, the avoidance of a hard border in Ireland – whilst being formally promoted – has not resonated much in the country (in fact, there appears to be only a very limited understanding of the border issue within Czech political circles).