France and Czech Republic

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Political relations

The relationship between France and the Czech Republic is encompassed by our EU membership. Our bilateral cooperation is governed by a strategic partnership agreement signed in 2008, for which the action plan 2018-2022 was signed at the Élysée Palace by the President of the Republic and the Czech Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš, in France for the commemorations of the centenary of the creation of the Czechoslovak army, held at Darney in the Vosges Department on 30 June 2018. It is due for renewal for the period 2023-2027.
The successive French and Czech Presidencies of the Council of the European Union in 2022 gave new impetus to our relations. Prime Minister Petr Fiala visited Paris on 7 June 2022 to meet the President of the Republic, who again met with the newly elected President Petr Pavel on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on 18 February 2023. Minister Colonna, meanwhile, received her Czech counterpart, Jan Lipavský, in Paris on 6 October 2023. The Minister of State for Europe, Laurence Boone, visited Prague on 27 and 28 April 2023 and met with her Czech counterpart, Martin Dvořák, on 24 August that year.

French presence

French Embassy website: https://cz.ambafrance.org
French community: 5,000 registered (2022)
Czech community in France: about 15,000

Visits

Recent French bilateral visits to the Czech Republic:

  • Visit by the Minister of State for Europe, Laurence Boone, to Prague (27-28 April 2023);
  • Visit by the Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, Franck Riester, to Prague (29 June 2022);
  • Visit by the Minister of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, to Prague (3-4 June 2021);
  • Visit by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, for the opening of the conference “Beyond 1989: Hopes and Disillusions After Revolutions” organized by the French Centre for Research in the Social Sciences (CEFRES) and Charles University (6 December 2019);
  • Visit by the Minister of State for European Affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, for a meeting with her Visegrád Group counterparts (28-29 November 2019);
  • Official visit by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron (26-27 October 2018);
  • Visit by the Minister for European Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau (10-11 May 2018);
  • Visit by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, for the Defence & Security Conference in Prague (9 June 2017);
  • Visit by the Minister of Labour, Employment, Vocational Training and Social Dialogue, Myriam El Khomri (20-21 February 2017);
  • Official visit by the President of the Republic, François Hollande (30 November 2016);
  • Visit by the Minister of State for European Affairs, Harlem Désir (26 May 2016);
  • Visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius, for the Conference of Czech Ambassadors (24 August 2015);
  • Official visit by the Prime Minister, Manuel Valls (8-9 December 2014).

Recent Czech bilateral visits to France:

  • Visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jan Lipavský (6 October 2023);
  • Visit by the Prime Minister, Petr Fiala (7 June 2022);
  • Visit by the Minister for European Affairs, Mikuláš Bek (10 February 2022);
  • Visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tomáš Petříček (5 June 2019);
  • Visit by the State Secretary for European Affairs, Milena Hrdinková (20 February 2019);
  • Visit by the Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš (11 November 2018);
  • Visit by the Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš (30 June 2018);
  • Visit by the State Secretary for European Affairs, Aleš Chmelař (30 January 2018);
  • Visit by the State Secretary for European Affairs, Aleš Chmelař (21 September 2017);
  • Visits by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Michaela Marksová (21 December 2016 and 2 March 2017);
  • Visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lubomír Zaorálek (1 June 2016);
  • Visit by the Prime Minister, Bohuslav Sobotka (24 March 2016);
  • Visit by the State Secretary for European Affairs, Tomáš Prouza (29 April 2015);
  • Official visit by the President, Miloš Zeman (8-10 September 2014).

Ambassadors

French Ambassador to the Czech Republic: Alexis Dutertre (since October 2020).
Czech Ambassador to France: Michal Fleischmann (since January 2020).
Chair of the France-Czech Republic Friendship Group of the French National Assembly: Marie-Christine Dalloz
Chair of the France-Czech Republic Friendship Group of the French Senate: Julien Bargeton

Economic relations

Our trade with the Czech Republic, which is France’s 15th-largest trading partner, stood at €14.45 billion in 2022, having been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Our imports (€8.6 billion) have increased by 12.1%, while our exports (€5.9 billion) have risen by 18.1%, helping reduce our trade deficit to an extent (€2.7 billion). By sector, 98% of bilateral trade concerns manufactured products, including 31% transport equipment and 27% mechanical, electrical, electronic and computer equipment. France has a structural bilateral surplus on chemicals, perfumes and cosmetics (€0.75 billion, after €0.57 billion in 2021), pharmaceuticals (€0.51 billion, after €0.5 billion), metal products (€0.12 billion) and agrifood products (0.1 billion). There are major cooperation prospects with the country, centred on the transport and energy sectors.
French companies are well established in the economic landscape, particularly in the automotive industry, transport, electrical equipment, energy and environmental services, financial services, construction, and the agrifood sector. Almost 1,200 companies in the Czech Republic have at least one French shareholder, and France was the third-largest foreign investor in the Czech Republic in 2021, excluding countries with attractive tax policies (foreign direct investment stock of €10 billion in 2021, or 7% of holdings).

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

The French cultural network in the Czech Republic is made up of the Institut Français in Prague, six Alliance Française branches in the regions (Brno, České Budějovice, Liberec, Ostrava, Pardubice, Plzeň), and the French high school in Prague (805 students in 2019). Linguistic cooperation also draws on the existence of four bilingual sections in Czech high schools (with “LabelFrancEducation” endorsement) and two Czech sections in the Lycée Carnot (Dijon) and Lycée Alphonse Daudet (Nîmes) high schools in France. Academic and research cooperation benefits from the expanded activities of the French Centre for Research in the Social Sciences (CEFRES) set up in 2015 in the premises of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, with the support of Charles University in Prague and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). The first Czechoslovak Republic was born in France: on 30 June 1918, French President Poincaré presented the flag of the new Czechoslovakia to 6,000 Czech and Slovak legionnaires, at Darney in the Vosges. On 15 October that year, France recognized the provisional Czechoslovak government, established on Rue Bonaparte in Paris.

Updated: November 2023

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