As the Czech Presidency of the EU draws to a close, a review of the achievements of their six-month tenure indicates that the Member State has overseen several successes in the environmental field, despite a climate change sceptical government. These successes have however also been tempered with a  lack of progress in other fields, and perhaps the decisive indicator as to whether the term has been successful is yet to come with the European Council summit coming up at the end of the month.
Agreements on 6 separate pieces of environmental legislation have been reached over the last half a year, with ecodesign rules, biocides rules, the EU's ecolabelling and eco-management (Emas) schemes, laws on ozone depleters  and on petrol vapour recovery systems all accepted and expected to be formally adopted during the Swedish Presidency.

The Czech Presidency has also overseen work on the European economic recovery package, where €4 billion have been set aside for strategic energy projects.

On the other hand their tenure has been less successful on the progress of a soil protection directive, with senior officials reporting that no substantial progress expected to be made despite a meeting of environment Ministers on 25 June. It is also unclear at the moment whether revision of the IPPC directive on industrial pollution will be approved by the Ministers at the same meeting.

Perhaps the biggest potential failure of the Presidency is yet to be confirmed, with national leaders once again expected to postpone talks about the funding of climate adaptation efforts in developing countries at the European Council later this month. Although there is still faint hope of some agreement being reached, the reality is that most experts and officials expect the EU to postpone any commitments once again, as they had done earlier in the Czech Presidency at the last European Council meeting in March.