Prague - Freshly appointed prime minister of the Czech Republic Jan Fischer assured the European Union that the Czech EU presidency is to continue smoothly despite the new caretaker government taking over.
Jan Fischer made his first official visit on Tuesday during which he met the EU chairman Jose Manuel Barroso.
When asked about his view of the European Union, he labelled himself "euro-realist".
"You journalists always need to have us labelled. So if you want, I am a euro-realist," the 58 year-old statistician told journalists at a press conference.
The caretaker government of Jan Fischer replaced the centre-right government of Mirek Topolánek (Civic Democrats) over the past weekend.
There is still a month and a half of the Czech Republic´s rotating EU presidency before it ends at the end of June.
Following the March collapse of Mirek Topolánek s cabinet the European Union has signaled support but disconcerted voices over the weakened position of the Czech presidency have been since abundant.
"It [collapse of the government] weakened the Czech EU presidency. You had a situation where everybody was thinking "When is the next presidency?" Green member of the European Parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit told Aktuálně.cz in an interview.
At the eatsern Partnership summit held in Prague last week Barroso alleged he would like to see Jan Fischer at the helm of the EU June summit. The EU leaders fret about seeing euro-sceptic president Klaus chairing the summit.
By heading to Brussels Jan Fischer has ended a tradition established after the fall of Czechoslovakia in January 1993 in which every newly elected PM travelled first to Bratislava.
The country is expected to hold an early election on October 9 and 10.
