Be responsible citizen of Europe

Schwarzenberg said,.Czech Republic has never been and will never be part of Western Europe, outgoing Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) said at the conference Central Europe as Home”. In the early 1990s, good friends used to say that we are part of Western Europe. Naturally, this was never so,” he added.

“We have a different mentality, we have a different tradition, we have a different political culture, as I found out in recent weeks. As a result, we are certainly not part of Western Europe,” Schwarzenberg said.

“We cannot help it, we will remain Central Europe and we will never leave the position,” he added.

In the past weeks, Prime Minister Petr Necas’s government fell after the police accused his closest aide Jana Nagyova of having spied on his wife.

Nagyova is also facing bribery charges.

President Milos Zeman then did not follow the will of a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and named his prime minister Jiri Rusnok, although his cabinet is unlikely to gain the Chamber of Deputies confidence and is expected to end by the autumn.

Speaking about identity, Schwarzenberg said its perception was changing in the form of ethnic, land and language identity throughout history. After several generations, another major change will occur, he added.

“I hope one day we will feel like responsible citizens of Europe. It is perhaps desirable for us to embrace the broader identity, too,” Schwarzenberg said.

The 20th century has revealed that it was a “tragic mistake and perverted thought” to place one’s own identity above that of others, he added.

“Let us be humble and do not approach ourselves too seriously,” Schwarzenberg said.