Pavel Telička

Pavel Telička (* 24 August 1965, in Washington) is a Czech politician.

After his graduation from the Charles University in Prague, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia. In the following years, he held various positions in the Czechoslovak - later Czech - ministry and in the Czech Mission to the European Union (EU) in Brussels. From 1998 onwards, he served as Chief Negotiator for the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union.

He has been member of supervisory board of the Tomas Bata Foundation [http://www.batova-vila.cz] since 1997. During the years of 1999-2003 he was honorary member of managing board of the National Training Fund. In 2001, he became honorary member of the Centre of Good Will, where he has been personally involved in charity project called “Signed by heart” supporting disabled children.

Pavel Telicka has been very active as speaker at various symposia, conferences and panel discussions. During 1999-2002 he gave lectures at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Charles University [http://fsv.cuni.cz/] on European economic integration and topical issues of European integration. In 2003, he published together with Czech journalist Karel Bartak a book entitled “How we entered…” describing in a form of dialogue various aspects of the negotiating process with the EU.

In 2003, he was awarded by President Vaclav Havel [http://www.vaclavhave|l.cz/index.php?sec=1&id=1] a Medal for significant contribution to the integration of the Czech Republic to the European Union and the same year the Medal of king Jiri z Podebrad for fostering peace, security and development of mutual understanding among European nations together with commemorative medal.

When the Czech Republic entered the EU on 1 May 2004, Telička became EU commissioner in the Prodi Commission. He shared the portfolio of Health and Consumer Protection [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commissioner_for_Health_%26_Consumer_Protection] with David Byrne. He did not continue in the new Commission due to a Government crises and was succeeded by the resigning Prime Minister. His successor as Czech commissioner in the Barroso Commission is Vladimír Špidla.

In December 2004 he co-founded BXL Consulting [http://www.bxl.cz] with offices in Prague and Brussels. BXL Consulting is providing consultancy in EU affairs, primarily to large companies. The portfolio of clients includes both Czech and European companies.

In January 2005 he joined the European Policy Centre [http://www.epc.eu] (EPC) as a Senior Advisor on an external basis. Since May 2005 he is a member of Board of Directors of Notre Europe association, founded by Jacques Delors. In July 2005 he was appointed European Coordinator for one of the priority projects within TEN-T for the railway network Rail Baltica.

During the winter terms 2005 and 2006 he lectured on the EU enlargement process at the Sciences Po in Dijon.

Pavel Telicka is keen on sports; rugby, squash, fitness, cross-country skiing, biking and roller-skating being his favourite sport arts. In December 2006, he was appointed as a President of the Czech Rugby Union. Furthermore, he is fond of literature, travelling and driving. He follows the principles of healthy lifestyle.