A reluctant European? The Czech Republic’s EU membership experience read through the EU Council Presidency

This paper explores the Czech Republic’s evolving understanding of its Europeanness and its position within the European Union (EU) during its first two decades of membership. The study focuses on the country’s two EU Council Presidencies in 2009 and 2022 as significant platforms for renegotiating its European identity and engaging with questions of the country’s role and vision within the EU. Despite the Czech Republic’s continued ambiguity towards European integration, we observe a surprising discursive shift between the two Presidencies; from a reluctant to a model European. Primarily driven by the political leadership rather than the lived experiences of EU membership among the Czech population, this shift testifies to the influence of the EU Council Presidency as an institution in shaping member states’ positions and the difficulty of deviating from the broader course of European integration.