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Mr Topolanek (l) at the EU-US summit in Prague (Photo: eu2009.cz)

Czech presidency limps off EU stage

The Czech republic in the past six months helped to end a severe EU gas crisis and to ease Ireland's Lisbon treaty problem. But its cack-handed diplomacy and internal battles risk it going down as "the worst EU presidency in history."

With hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians and Slovaks left without heat in a freezing January, the then Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek flew to Kiev and Moscow to broker talks and negotiate the deployment of EU monitors at pumping stations.

The m...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

Mr Topolanek (l) at the EU-US summit in Prague (Photo: eu2009.cz)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's Foreign Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

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