Says EU issues, beating terrorism top priorities

By Andrew Steven Harris
For The Prague Post
September 28, 2005

After years serving a range of roles in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, including his current tenure as deputy foreign minister, Jan Winkler should know what a foreign ambassador does during the days when there's not an unfolding international crisis. Instead, he says, "I'm looking forward to finding out."

Winkler is now doing just that: He assumed the post of Czech ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom earlier this month.

The 48-year-old former executive at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Andersen Consulting takes on his new role at a crucial time for both Great Britain and the Czech Republic. With Britain about to assume its turn at the presidency of the European Union, the Czech national leadership finds itself divided over the role of the EU, with Prime Minister Jirí Paroubek a vocal supporter of integration, but the nation's head of state, President Václav Klaus, an outspoken Euroskeptic.

Thus, Winkler will have to perform a graceful balancing act if he's to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the British presidency.

"The British presidency [of the EU] is of key importance," Winkler said in an interview with The Prague Post on the day before he was to leave for his new assignment. "There are priorities for us, such as financial, bringing investors to the Czech Republic, but there are also other priorities of key importance, like counterterrorism.

"The Czech Republic is probably not perceived as a first-line target, but we try to be active in our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the war against terrorism," he said. "We will of course continue to be supportive of Great Britain in designing an effective system in the fight against terrorism."

Another priority, Winkler said, is protecting the freedom of Czechs to work abroad in other EU nations. Currently, Great Britain is one of only three countries - in addition to Sweden and Ireland - that allow the free movement of Czech workers.

"Right now, Britons see that the influx of labor forces is a little bit higher than expected," Winkler said, "so I expect to be monitoring carefully that there are no problems with Czechs coming into Great Britain."

Winkler, who is married with three children, ages 21, 19 and 16, earned both his master's degree and law doctorate from Charles University, with additional studies in Great Britain, the United States and elsewhere in Europe. Under communism, he worked as an attorney for the state railway, overseeing investments, and then served as registrar and secretary of Charles University after the 1989 revolution.

He served in the Foreign Affairs Ministry from 1995 to 1999, eventually rising to the position of deputy minister before leaving for the private sector. He returned to the ministry in 2003, where he made use of his specialization in security policy and arms export control.

Though he is well traveled, Winkler insists the UK has always been one of his first loves. "I have had a passion for Britain for years," he said. "I think people are born as Anglophiles or Francophiles and so on, and I was born an Anglophile."

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