News of Radio Prague
Copenhagen summit
The European Union and ten candidate countries are engaged in a final round of accession talks at a two day summit in Copenhagen. The negotiations will centre on the candidates' demand to use all 42.5 billion euros earmarked for enlargement by EU leaders back in 1999 in Berlin. The Danish offer, which some EU members find overly generous, is about two billion euros short of that sum. Politicians predict much haggling over the amount of EU aid for the newcomers before a deal is reached, late on Friday or Saturday, on the EU's biggest ever expansion to create the world's largest single market in 2004.
Farmers' border blockade
As the Copenhagen summit got underway, Czech farmers blocked several key border crossings with the EU in protest of the level of farming aid the country will receive upon entry. Hundreds of farmers used tractors and other equipment to cut off passage to Austria and Germany leaving long lines of cars stranded on both sides of the border for over two hours. The EU has proposed phasing in income support for farmers starting from 25 percent of the level received by farmers in the current EU member states and allowing the candidates to use cash from EU rural development funds and national budgets to top up those payments to 50 percent or more. Czech farmers are unhappy with the proposal expressing the view that the country's ticket to the EU will cost them their livelihood. Farming accounts for only two percent of the Czech Republic's GDP and employs about four percent of the working population.
Ramiro Cibrian lobbies for Czech pensioners
In reaction to farmers' concerns, the head of the EU delegation to the Czech Republic Ramiro Cibrian said on Thursday that he was far more worried about the fate of Czech pensioners after the country's accession to the European Union. Mr. Cibrian noted that the pension system would remain in the competence of the Czech authorities and that, unlike farmers, pensioners have no leverage on the government. The Czech Republic's entry into the EU will bring greater prosperity, Mr Cibrian said, but the question is how those funds will be used. Pensioners may go short in order for the government to satisfy farmers.
Woman gets three years in jail for daughter's death
A court of appeal has sentenced a young woman to three years in prison for negligence which killed her five year old daughter. The woman came home drunk and suffocated her daughter by the weight of her body when she unconsciously rolled on top of her in her sleep. She later hid her child's dead body in a woodland area nearby and told the police that her daughter had disappeared from the playground. Helena Cermakova's neighbours said she was often seen drunk and an autopsy revealed alcohol in the child's body as well.
Weather:
Friday is expected to be partly cloudy to overcast with scattered snow showers and day temperatures between zero and minus four degrees Celsius. More snow is expected over the weekend with nighttime lows at around eight degrees below zero.
