Czech-German relations have been experiencing two contradictory processes. On the one hand cooperation on executive level focused on present and future is being further developed, which reflects the extent of economic interconnection and overcomes sensitive issues of the common past. These issues are still part of the Czech-German relations, although they do not stay in their center nor make them more difficult.

On the other hand Czech and German society have begun to grow apart due to different perception of the refugee crisis. Some politicians, especially in the Czech Republic, are trying to take advantage of this trend and increase their popularity based on the criticism of Germany. At the same time, German criticism of Central and Eastern Europe got louder too.

The introduced project will try to eliminate these negative trends. Its purpose is to deepen mutual understanding between Czech and German foreign policy community. AMO together with its partners organizes closed roundtable for German and Czech experts and public discussion about Czech-German relations. AMO is also releasing policy paper dedicated to the future of Czech-German relations, which will include recommendation for their further development.

Czech-German Debates in 2016: Towards the New Phase of Relations? project is organized by AMO in cooperation with the German Association for the Study of Eastern Europe (DGO) with kind support of the Czech German Future Fund and the Heinrich Böll Foundation Prague.