He was a member of ANO 2011, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, until 2017 when he quit amid disagreements with leader Andrej Babiš.

[1] He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague,[2] in 1986, and began working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the following years, he held various positions in the ministry, including as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in the Czech Mission to the European Union in Brussels.

When the Czech Republic entered the EU on 1 May 2004, Telička became a commissioner in the Prodi Commission, sharing the portfolio of Health and Consumer Protection with David Byrne.

He held this post only until November 2004, and did not continue in the following Barroso Commission due to a Czech government crisis in summer 2004.