The Czech Republic took over the European Union presidency from France at midnight as a top government official illuminated a giant pendulum on a hill above Prague with blue and yellow.
The former communist country, which became an EU member in 2004, on Thursday assumed the rotating six-month presidency at a time of the financial crisis, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the row between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices.
The tenure may turn out to be a tough job for the liberal Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek owing to growing opposition from the eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus, who has dismissed the presidency as "unimportant".
Possible handicaps for Czechs also include the government's failure to set a euro adoption date and to start the ratification of the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty as the last member of the 27-nation bloc.
The official ceremony on the presidency takeover is scheduled to take place at Prague's historic National Theatre on January 7.
In the next six months, the country will organise a dozen ministerial meetings and about 30 conferences and spend a total of 3.3 billion korunas (124.5 million euros, 178 million dollars) on the presidency.
The Czechs are hoping to host the first EU summit with US president-elect Barack Obama, to start a rapprochement process with former Soviet countries Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, and to continue the EU integration process in commemoration of the 2004 enlargement they were a part of.
