In their powder blue tunics and white polyester turtlenecks, the guardsmen outside Prague Castle are an attractive target for pushy tourists, who pose next to the unsmiling soldiers for a holiday snap.
But for the Czechs, the guardsmen are a symbol of the freedom and national sovereignty won during the Velvet Revolution of 1989 which led the former dissident Vaclav Havel to occupy the castle as the country's president.
The Czechs have been enjoying their new-found freedom and Prague is one of the liveliest, most liberal cities in central Europe.
But as they struggle to meet strict conditions for entry to the European Union, involving a thorough overhaul of the legal and economic system, some Czechs fear they are about to exchange one form of foreign domination for another.
"When the Nazis took over here, we all had to learn German. Then we were told to learn Russian and now they want us to speak English. One day, we'll probably have to learn Chinese," said Jiri Bouc, who runs a fastfood stall off Narodni, Prague's main shopping street.
Although a report by the European Commission last autumn criticised the slow pace of reform in the Czech Republic, the energetic approach of Mr Milos Zeman's Social Democrat-led government is starting to bear fruit.
The country has now completed negotiations on 13 out of almost 30 categories, or chapters, of EU laws, including a key chapter governing the free movement of goods and services.
The Commissioner with responsibility for enlargement, Mr Gunther Verheugen, now describes Czech progress as "satisfactory" and Commission officials based in Prague agree that the Czechs are now ahead of their neighbours in the race to qualify for EU membership.
The Czechs have set a target date for entry in 2003 and, although he does not expect the EU to endorse this date immediately, Mr Petr Kubernat, who heads the EU section at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, is impatient with the EU's refusal to specify a timeframe for the negotiations.
"It is important for us that during the French presidency the concrete scenario for how we move forward should be prepared and it's also important for us to have a date for the possible completion of negotiations.
"We are on the way and we need a concrete plan for how we should continue," he said.
Although economic growth has stalled in recent years, the Czech Republic, which was the second richest country in Europe between the World Wars, is on course to satisfy most of the economic criteria for EU entry. But Commission officials are concerned about the inefficiency of the civil service and the judicial system and the government's failure to make a credible start on reforming them.
For their part, the Czechs have been observing with disquiet the current debate within the EU about institutional reforms which they fear could lead to a two-speed Europe, with an inner core around France and Germany excluding the poorer states.
Mr Kubernat is especially concerned about proposals to change the system of appointing the Commission so that each memberstate would no longer have the right to nominate a commissioner.
"It is psychologically very important for a newcomer because, although we know the commissioner is independent of his country of origin, the public will understand that we, the Czechs, have our commissioner in the Commission.
"It is also good for the Commission because it means that the decisions of the Commission are much closer to the public," he said.
Czech support for joining the EU has been stable at around 60 per cent for the past decade, but there are signs of public disquiet as the negotiations for entry are perceived increasingly as a oneway process in which Brussels makes demands and Prague complies.
The leader of the opposition, Mr Vaclav Klaus, is becoming ever more strident in his comments on Europe. Recently he accused the EU of slowing down the negotiations because it has already achieved what it wants from the formerly communist states of central and eastern Europe by persuading them to join NATO and to reform their economies.
Mr Kubernat remains confident that the Czech Republic will join within the next five years but he warns that, for enlargement to succeed, the member-states must become more energetic in preparing the EU for the process.
"If there is no serious argument for the postponement of enlargement, it will be very difficult to explain to our public that we are ready but the Union is not," he said.