Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček considers the budget and planned staffing of the Presidency to be insufficient. According to him, spending is about half a billion lower than it was recently in countries of a similar size. Another Social Democrat, former head of diplomacy and current Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek, agrees with him.
The chief of ČSSD Jan Hamáček said that the Ministry of the Interior could not approve the material in its current form, especially due to security reserves. “I brought this to the Prime Minister´s attention. As it is, the Ministry of the Interior disagrees,” Hamáček said.
However, Babiš rejected the criticism. According to him, Petříček has deficiencies in the budget and is not used to saving. The Prime Minister also stated that the Czech Republic wants to hold the Presidency as climate-friendly and therefore to limit flights to Brussels and to replace some personal meetings with internet calls and virtual offices.
Based on the proposal sent by Babiš to the government, 584 million CZK will go toward events related to the Presidency. The cost of new workers is to be 215 million CZK, the cost of workers sent to the Czech Permanent Representation in Brussels is 250 million CZK. In total, the Czech Republic should employ 200 people for the Presidency, of which 58 will be in Brussels.
