Final Word from Thursday, May 14, 2026

If the decision of the Babiš government on Mon. to discontinue the regular reports about meeting the Maastricht criteria and aligning with the eurozone can be seen as yet another power play against Pres. Petr Pavel, Pavel's own actions with regard to the Bucharest Nine meeting yesterday can be considered a countermove. Pavel said before leaving Prague on Tues. that the outcome of the meeting would be a declaration that "should confirm the validity of the commitments made in The Hague." His office said after the meeting yesterday that, "The summit resulted in a joint declaration in which the countries reaffirmed their commitment to spend 5% of GDP on defense and related investments." Now read the declaration. It mentions the 5% commitment but doesn't actually "reaffirm" it. Andrej Babiš has made only vague public comments about adopting the 5% target as his own (here and here) and has never fully reaffirmed it. Babiš is waffling, and Pavel is pushing him hard in a direction it's not clear he wants to go. [ Czech Republic Romania Czech National Bank CNB ]