Czech Constitutional Court rules Pavel can attend NATO summit in Ankara

The dispute arose on Monday when Prime Minister Andrej Babiš announced that Pavel could not be part of the country's delegation to the alliance meeting. Babiš did not immediately comment on the court's preliminary decision. The prime minister's office referred questions to the foreign ministry, which also declined to comment pending the court's final ruling.

Background to the dispute

The Constitutional Court said it would take up the underlying constitutional question in an expedited manner in the coming weeks. That question centres on whether the prime minister or the president has the final say over the composition of Czech delegations to international summits, a question that has not previously been settled definitively in Czech law.

President Pavel, a former senior NATO military officer, has publicly argued that heads of state traditionally lead their countries' delegations to alliance summits and that his exclusion would have been an unusual departure from established practice. His office welcomed the court's intervention while emphasising that the broader legal question remains open.

The court's order was unusually fast, issued less than 48 hours after Babiš's announcement and ahead of the accreditation deadline NATO member states are expected to meet this week. Legal analysts noted that the speed of the ruling reflected both the time pressure and the court's view that the existing practice pointed strongly in the president's favour on the narrow question before it.

Stakes for the Ankara summit

Diplomatic observers said the dispute risked overshadowing the substantive agenda of the Ankara summit, which is expected to focus on alliance burden-sharing, support for Ukraine and a long-term defence plan for the Baltic region. The Czech Republic is among a group of NATO members that have pushed for sustained military aid to Kyiv and have committed to spending targets above the alliance's 2 percent of GDP benchmark.

The expedited ruling is expected within several weeks. Until then, the preliminary injunction remains in force, meaning Pavel will be formally listed as part of the Czech delegation and will travel to Ankara as planned unless the court reverses course. The foreign ministry has been given no immediate option to appeal the preliminary order, although the government could still argue its case when the full bench takes up the underlying constitutional issue.

What happens next

The broader constitutional question, observers said, could reshape how the Czech Republic manages its representation at international summits for years to come, clarifying the boundary between the largely ceremonial role of the presidency and the executive authority of the prime minister's office. A final ruling against Babiš would reinforce the view that the president must be included in delegations to summits of organisations of which the Czech Republic is a member.

Czech opposition figures, who have clashed with Babiš's government over several foreign-policy decisions, called the court's interim order a vindication of established constitutional practice. Government allies, by contrast, argued that the prime minister should retain discretion over the size and composition of delegations for cost and coordination reasons, a position the court will now examine in detail.

Verbatim quote preserved in original language: "Die Regierung und das Außenministerium werden angewiesen, die Organisatoren des NATO-Gipfels unverzüglich darüber zu informieren, dass der Präsident der Republik Teil der offiziellen Delegation ist", heißt es in der von Gerichtssprecher Pavel Samal vorgetragenen Anordnung.