Firstly on Saturday 22 October, he participated at the autumn school of Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the Tartu University, where he delivered a lecture about the Czech EU Presidency and the multiple crises it is confronted with. He focused foremost on the soaring energy prices and what measures the EU has already adopted, but also on what is currently being discussed in the EU in order to alleviate the negative impacts on the EU citizens and improve energy security, such as joint gas purchases, solidarity in providing emergency supplies among EU Member States or the decoupling of gas and electricity pricing. Other issues such as the progress on the EU enlargement process including the opening of the accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia and visa liberalisation with Kosovo, EU assistance to Ukraine or tackling the Ukrainian refugees were also touched upon. A very lively discussion was followed by an informal programme, including a quiz of students´ knowledge about their host country – Estonia, and also lake sauna.

Shortly afterwards, on 26 October, Ambassador Král paid a visit to the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, where he addressed – again after a year - the higher officers´ course, lecturing on EU foreign policy and the EU´s ambition to become a global actor. This year, the bonus was that he represented the country holding the rotating EU Presidency. Although as was explained during the lecture, when it comes to foreign policy, the role of the EU Presidency is limited compared to the period before the coming to force of the Lisbon Treaty, which was the case of the previous Czech EU Presidency in 2009. Despite that, the Czech Republic has for example organized the first meeting of the European Political Community, gathering both the EU and non-EU like-minded countries cherishing the same values, to discuss common challenges facing our continent.

Also, one of the main messages that Ambassador conveyed to the students was that in the last eight months, due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the EU did more to become a genuine geopolitical actor than in decades before.

Hereby, the Czech Embassy would like to acknowledge its gratitude both to the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies and the Baltic Defence College for having invited our Ambassador and for a great co-operation so far, which we hope to continue with also in the future.