Prague - The new logo for the Czech Republic´s EU presidency was presented Wednesday by PM Mirek Topolánek and Czech Deputy PM for EU Affairs Alexandr Vondra in Prague´s Veletržní palác.
The logo reads EU2009.CZ and each letter has a different color, representing EU member states´ national flags. It refers to the www.eu2009.cz portal dedicated to the Czech Republic´s EU presidency.
"The logo is to symbolize diversity, openness, colourfulness and playfulness," explained Vondra.
The author of the logo is Tomáš Pakosta. "We wanted to choose an intelligent and smart design which would reflect a country of intelligent and smart people," said designer Aleš Najbrt, owner of Najbrt Design Studio, who helped to select the winning design.
"Out of 350 designs we shortlisted 5 proposals and then we chose the one by Tomáš Pakosta. His design is based on a map of Europe and thus reflects Europe´s colorfulness," further explained Najbrt.
Pakosta also prepared a manual how to use the logo in various occasions, which also wants to indicate the necessity for EU countries to be flexible.
Ties and scarves
The enormous volume of funds planned for the promotion of EU presidency-related products proves how important the EU presidency is. Only silk ties and scarves will cost around CZK 7 million. And yet, compared with costs of other EU presidencies, the Czech budget is among the lower ones.
Over 30,000 ties and 13,000 scarves will be produced for the presidency by Czech company Blažek. The price for one piece will be around CZK 150.
The Czech Republic will see about 300 official meetings. The rest will be held in Brussels and in other places all over the world.
