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On Wednesday, miners at the ČSM mine in Stonava, Karviná, hauled the last wagon of coal from a depth of 1,300 metres. This marks the symbolic end of black coal mining in the Ostrava-Karviná region and the entire Czech Republic after nearly 250 years. Dozens of guests attended the ceremony underground, while others watched on two large outdoor screens, the Czech News Agency reported.

The company that ran the last coal mine is state-owned OKD. As mining gradually became uneconomical, the company closed all its mines and is now shifting to other activities. On the last day of January, 750 workers lost their jobs at the mines, with another 150 leaving by February 28. Technical decommissioning of the last mines, where coal was extracted for almost 50 years, is expected to take about three years.

Analysts say the closure will have a negligible impact on the Czech energy sector. Brown coal is still mined in north-western Bohemia but is also expected to end in the coming years.

The regular meetings of Czech constitutional officials at Prague Castle to discuss foreign affairs will no longer take place, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) said after Wednesday’s talks with President Petr Pavel. The meetings, which brought together the president, prime minister, leaders of both parliamentary chambers, and the foreign minister to coordinate stances on foreign policy, no longer made “much sense,” according to Babiš. He told journalists he will now discuss foreign policy directly with the president, while Pavel will meet the other participants separately. He also added that he now discusses foreign policy within the ANO, SPD and Motorists' Party coalition.

The decision follows last week’s controversy, when Pavel published text messages sent by Foreign Minister Petr Macinka (Motorists‘ Party) to his advisers, which Pavel has described as amounting to an attempt at blackmail. Babiš said he wants to calm the situation and confirmed that the Motorists’ Party honorary president Filip Turek will not be appointed environment minister.

Former Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) criticised the decision to end the coordination meetings, calling it “completely wrong” on X. He warned it could lead to chaos and weaken the Czech Republic’s standing abroad. Other opposition figures reacted similarly.

A Eurobarometer survey shows Czechs are more optimistic about the future of the world than the EU average, the European Parliament’s Prague office reported on Wednesday. 57% of Czechs view the future positively, compared with the 44% average in the EU.

Top security concerns for Czechs include uncontrolled migration (66%, EU average 65%) and nearby conflicts and wars (56%, EU average 72%). Around 45% are worried about disinformation (EU average 70%), while roughly half express concerns over freedom of expression, polarisation, AI-generated false content, and online data protection.

About a third of Czechs have a positive view of the EU (EU average 49%), over 40% are neutral, and around a quarter have a negative view.

The survey was conducted in November 2025 by research agency Verian in all 27 EU member states.

The director-generals of Czech Television and Czech Radio, Hynek Chudárek and René Zavoral, have called on Culture Minister Ota Klempíř (Motorists‘ Party) to establish a working group to allow discussions over the government’s planned changes to the funding of public service media. They said the group should include media experts and other stakeholders. The appeal was made in a joint press release issued on Wednesday.

The governing coalition of ANO, SPD and the Motorists‘ Party plans to abolish television and radio licence fees and move the funding of public broadcasters to the state budget. The coalition has already agreed that the change would take effect from January 2027. The government argues that the reform would reduce the financial burden on households and businesses.

Chudárek and Zavoral said licence fees remain their preferred funding model, which has proved itself over the past 33 years. They stressed that the issue is not a technical detail but a fundamental condition for the independence and credibility of public service media.