On May 1, 2004, the Czech Republic expanded the map of the European community and joined the European Union. Practically since then, opponents of the country’s remaining in the Union have repeatedly emphasized that the Czech Republic has lost its sovereignty by joining it, and that Brussels dictates its domestic and foreign policy. But the Czech Republic actually participates in the decision-making of the European Union.
On May 1, 2004, the Czech Republic expanded the map of the European community and joined the European Union. Access to a common policy and rules gave rise to the popular creativity of residents and politicians, who during the following decades also spread various rumors or distorted the facts.
Claim: Brussels dictates our domestic and foreign policy and the Czech Republic is not a sovereign state
Where it came from, where it originated and how it spread:
Claims about a “Brussels dictate” have been appearing in the Czech public space since 2004 – that is, since the Czech Republic became part of the European Union. In addition to opponents of the country remaining in the Union, other politicians also use it, often in cases where they disagree with some decision of the European institutions.
A few weeks ago, for example, the chairman of the ANO movement, Andrej Babiš, spoke in parliament about the dictates from Brussels. He used the phrase when expressing his opinion on the procedure of the European Union in dealing with the illegal migration. “Brussels has nothing to dictate who we invite to our home,” he declared, among other things.
In 2019, before the last European elections so far, the Manipulators association prepared research on frequently used myths about the European Union on disinformation websites in the previous year. Claims about the dictates of Brussels and the limitation of Czech sovereignty were among the most used. “On the monitored websites, 224 texts were devoted to this topic,” the authors of the study found.
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According to them, disinformers more often used the sentence about the dictates of Brussels after it was mentioned by politicians. “For example, the increase in the number of texts in July 2018 is due to the fact that Tomio Okamura used the phrase “dictate of Brussels” in his candidate speech while defending the SPD presidential seat. Another period when this myth resonated was the presidential election, when he was Miloš Zeman portrayed as someone who can stand up to Brussels and its dictates,” the study said.
The SPD party often uses claims about the dictates of Brussels. In 2022, for example, she mentioned it on her website in response to the words of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, about the possibility of majority decision-making in the Union. “It is another step towards the federalization of the European Union, which in its consequences would effectively mean the end of the remaining sovereignty and independence of the Czech Republic,” the text said.
At the same time, the Czech Republic is not the only country in which politicians talk about the dictates from Brussels and the loss of sovereignty in favor of the European Union. For an example, just go to neighboring Slovakia, where these words are repeatedly uttered by members of the now government movement Smer or the nationalist SNS. “We’ve had enough, Brussels is still dictating to us what we should do, what we should accept,” declared SNS Chairman Andrej Danko, for example, during a debate before the presidential elections last fall.
How is it really?
In fact, Brussels – that is European Union – according to experts, it does not dictate anything to the member countries, and therefore not even to the Czech Republic. Legislative processes in the European Union are set up in such a way that all member states participate in decision-making. “The claim is nonsense, because the Czech Republic has the opportunity to influence everything that happens in Brussels through European institutions. “Nothing is imposed on the Czech Republic without the representatives of its government being able to express themselves through the Council of the EU or the European Council or to build an alliance, a coalition that would prevent the adoption of a decision that is not satisfactory to them,” a political scientist from Brno’s Masaryk University and head of Petr Kaniok of the International Institute of Political Science.
According to him, the vast majority of European decisions cannot be made without the approval of the European Parliament, which is again represented by Czech MEPs, who have the ability to influence the decisions of the Parliament.
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He admitted that sometimes decision-making in the Union can end up deciding in favor of a cause opposed by the representatives Czech Republic they built Even in such a case, however, it is not a matter of dictation, but of a common situation in politics. “It may happen that Czech politicians in European institutions fail to negotiate, that we are not able to convince other partners that our position is better. But that’s a completely normal thing. Theoretically and practically, the Czech Republic has at its disposal a whole range of tools that it can use to win its opinion,” Kaniok added.
The office of MEP Luďek Niedermayer also expressed a similar opinion on the website earlier. “Small and medium-sized states, to which the Czech Republic belongs, are represented in EU institutions in a preferential ratio compared to large states. If we talk about “Brussels”, we must realize that the Czech Republic is also Brussels in this case, it is not a separated power center as in the case of Soviet Moscow, but a common and democratic decision-making apparatus of all member states,” she said.
Verdict of the Journal: Lie
On May 1, 2004, the Czech Republic expanded the map of the European community and joined the European Union. Access to a common policy and rules gave rise to the popular creativity of residents and politicians, who during the following decades also spread various rumors or distorted the facts.
