News

Under an opposition motion, the Czech lower house is set to hold an extraordinary session to discuss security, the economy and the media on Thursday next week.

However, the coalition government, which has a majority in the lower house, is expected to reject most of the items on the agenda. Speaker Tomio Okamura of the governing Freedom and Direct Democracy said MPs had more important matters to deal with.

The Czech Ministry of Regional Development plans to include previously unregulated parcel lockers in the category of “minor structures” in an amendment to the Building Act, the Czech News Agency reported on Friday.

This has drawn criticism from operators, retailers and local government representatives. They say the change is unnecessary and could slow the development of logistics services and reduce accessibility for citizens, particularly in smaller municipalities.

Parcel lockers have appeared around Czechia in recent years and critics say they can be an eyesore.

A project named Czech Library, which in recent years has enabled public libraries to acquire non-commercial domestically-produced books, will not take place this year. The news was announced by the Moravian Library in Brno, which runs the project on behalf of the Ministry of Culture.

The reason given is that a provisional state budget that was in place from the start of the year until last month prevented a call for proposals from taking place at the usual time.

The Motorists party minister of culture, Oto Klempíř, has been criticised for halting the Czech Library project by some publishers, writers and his predecessor in the post.

Unified entrance exams for Czech secondary schools are getting underway, with tens of thousands of applicants sitting tests in mathematics and Czech. According to Cermat, around 96,450 students have applied for four-year programmes this year, slightly fewer than last year. In total, about 122,400 pupils will take the exams. Candidates have 70 minutes for maths and 60 minutes for Czech, with the better result in each subject counting toward the final score. Results of the first round will be announced on May 15. The education organisation EDUin says success also depends on students’ mental well-being and recommends careful time management during the tests.