Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala visits Vienna on Monday. Fiala is received by Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and received with military honors. Nehammer and Fiala were together in Tel Aviv in late October to express their support for Israel’s right to self-defense following the major attack by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. The Czech Republic and Austria are also united in calling on the Western Balkans to move forward with EU membership.
In addition to the Middle East and EU enlargement, the focus of the visit will be migration, the war in Ukraine and transport and energy issues, the Czech government office said. Due to the migration situation in Europe, Austria introduced controls at border crossings with, among others, the Czech Republic in October. At a meeting of the Visegrad Group, the V4 countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) agreed to hold regular meetings with Austria and Germany to better coordinate measures to combat illegal migration. Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia also consult regularly in the so-called Austerlitz format (also Slavkov format).
However, the liberal-conservative government in Prague has different views than the federal government on the issue of nuclear energy. The Temelin nuclear power plant in South Bohemia has been a contentious issue between the two countries for years. A year ago, the National Council rejected the construction of small modular nuclear reactors, so-called “Small Modular Reactors” (SMRs), in the Czech Republic. The Czech state energy supplier CEZ is planning to build a pilot project for a nuclear park with mini-nuclear power plants on site around the Temelin nuclear power plant by 2032. This plan is causing discontent, especially in neighboring Upper Austria.
Fiala, who has been in office since the end of November 2021, has never made a bilateral visit to Austria. Nehammer visited Fiala in Prague in mid-May 2022. “Austria was neutral, is neutral and remains neutral”, stated the Chancellor at the time in view of Sweden and Finland’s NATO ambitions.