The Czech embassies in four countries - Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Moldova and Singapore - will represent the Portuguese presidency of the European Union for six months as of 1 July, Tomas Kuchta, chief of the Czech Foreign Ministry office in charge of the preparation of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency, told Ceska Tiskova Kancelar on 28 June.

Since Portugal does not have embassies in these countries the Czech Republic, as another EU member state, will carry out the local EU presidency there.

The task of the local presidency will be to assist the Portuguese presidency by representing the EU in these countries and facilitating coordination between those EU member states that are represented in these countries.

The Czech embassies will be temporarily reinforced by one diplomat each to cope with the task, Kuchta said.

The Czech Republic will hold the six-month EU rotating presidency in 2009. "Before this, we will assess the experience of the work of our embassies that will represent the Portuguese presidency," Kuchta said.

The Czech Republic will be paid for its local presidency through Brussels, he said.

In 2008, the Czech embassy will represent France that will assume the EU presidency in the communist North Korea with which France has no diplomatic relations, Kuchta said.