Passau, Germany, April 21 (CTK) – Czech President Milos Zeman can imagine the Czech Republic adopting the euro in foreseeable future, he told the Bavarian daily Passauer Neue Presse out on Saturday, adding that the Czechs could join the euro zone in five years.

Zeman’s predecessor in the presidential post, Vaclav Klaus, whose mandate expired on March 7, was a resolute opponent of the Czech adoption of the euro, the paper recalls.

Commenting on the future shape of the EU, Zeman emphasised his disagreement with the accession of Turkey.

On the contrary, he said he can imagine Russia’s association with the EU, though not sooner than after some 20 years.

According to Zeman, former Czech socialist prime minister who won the direct presidential polls in January, the fight against terrorism – “including Islamic terrorism” – should become the foreign political priority of the EU.

Zeman said he would like the Czech Republic to assist more in this fight.

When speaking about Czech-German relations, Zeman dismissed the view that in his duel with the rival presidential candidate, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, he wanted to score points by using anti-German stereotypes.

“In the campaign I did not use anti-German sterotypes but anti-Nazi ones. He who believes that the present Germany is a Nazi country offends the country,” Zeman is quoted as saying.

Nevertheless, he defended his previous statement about the then Sudeten Germans being the fifth column of Adolf Hitler in inter-war Czechoslovakia.

This fact was “generally accepted by historians” after World War Two, Zeman said.

He cannot see any reason why the assessment of the past should influence the Czech Republic’s present and future relations with Bavaria, he told Passauer Neue Presse.

Most Sudeten Germans settled down in Bavaria and Austria after being stripped of citizenship and transferred from Czechoslovakia after the war.

Zeman said he welcomes the emergence of Euroregions that can be expected to eliminate the tension with roots in the past.