News

PM to negotiate support in confidence vote with opposition

The new Czech Prime Minister, Jiri Paroubek, has said he believes all Social Democrat MPs will support his cabinet in the upcoming confidence vote, however he is prepared to negotiate with the opposition Civic Democrats and Communists. Several Social Democrat deputies have not yet confirmed whether they will vote for Prime Minister Paroubek's government.

Poll: Social Democrats lose voters owing to government crisis

A poll conducted by the Factum agency suggests that the recent government crisis has caused support for the ruling Social Democrats to drop by more than four percent but did not affect the coalition Christian Democrats. The opposition Civic Democrats top the poll with 35 percent of voter support. The opposition Communist Party, with some 26 percent, would become the second strongest party in parliament, if elections were held tomorrow.

Czech central bank cuts rates to lowest level in history

The Czech National Bank on Thursday unexpectedly cut interest rates to their lowest level ever, with the key repo rate down by a quarter percentage point to 1.75 percent, a spokeswoman for the bank has said. Analysts say the cuts will weaken the crown for a longer period, bringing down the costs of credits and mortgages.

EU parliament report lauds new member states, criticises Czech Republic

A European Parliament report adopted on Thursday says that Hungary, Lithuania and Poland have done best in adopting European Union legislation but the Czech Republic is bottom of the new class. The report showed all 10 countries which joined the bloc last May have done better than critics forecast in implementing the 1,579 directives related to the EU single market. It says that the Czech Republic has yet to transpose 9.6 percent of EU legislation into national law, improve laws on recognition of professional qualifications, implement EU legislation on equal treatment of men and women at work and improve legislation on the protection of personal data.

Skoda to launch production of new Roomster model in early 2006

The Czech car maker Skoda will invest more than 100 million euros (129 million dollars) into its Kvasiny plant for the launch of its new Roomster model next year, the company's board chairman said on Thursday. The company, part of the Volkswagen group, intends to launch production of the vehicle early next year and the car will go on sale in the second half of 2006. The expanded facility will create another 2,000 jobs at the plant in Kvasiny, east Bohemia. It currently employs more than 1,200 people. The plant already manufactures Skoda's top-of-the-range Superb vehicle.

Weather

It should be partly cloudy in the next couple of days with daytime temperatures reaching highs of 21 degrees Celsius.