Czech Republic signs up for EU funding, but no agreement yet in many areas

The Czech Republic has signed on to three of what are called operational programmes with the European Commission. Vladimir Spidla, the Czech European commissioner for social affairs, said the programmes allow the Czech Republic to draw over CZK 100 billion from the EU's 2007-2013 budget, of which CZK 2 billion could arrive this year. The programmes signed on Tuesday are Education for Competitiveness, Prague Adaptability and Human Resources and Employment. However, they are the only operational programmes the country has signed out of a total of 24 - the worst score among all new EU states.