-
03/17/2023
Czechia’s income from tourism reached around CZK 118 billion, a year-on-year increase of roughly CZK 51 billion, the Czech News Agency reported on Thursday citing a press release by the state agency CzechTourism. While this is a significant increase, it is still well behind the CZK 167 billion that came in through tourism during the last pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Tourist income is calculated by adding the money foreign visitors to Czechia spend on housing, food or transport. Interestingly, Ukrainians spent the most in Czechia last year, more than a third of the overall income from tourism. They were followed by Germans and Poles.
-
03/17/2023
Czechia’s new president, Petr Pavel, began the second day of his visit to Poland by meeting with the country’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecky, in Warsaw. In an opening remark ahead of the meeting, President Pavel said that he believes that the region of Central and Eastern Europe is currently in a key moment of its history and that it can play a vital role in helping Ukraine not just against Russian aggression, but also in its rebuilding and EU integration. He also expressed appreciation for Warsaw’s decision to provide MiG-29 combat jets to Ukraine along with Slovakia.
Mr Morawiecky said that he isn’t sure the two countries ever enjoyed better relations over the 1,000 years of history their shared history. He also praised the two countries’ efforts in helping Ukraine and said that he hopes to see Visegrad cooperation revived. President Pavel has criticised the Visegrad platform, which includes Czechia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.
The Czech head of state will also be visiting the centre of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex in the Polish capital. He is then set to fly to Rzeszów-Jasionka airport where he will see the local Polish-American logistics centre from which most of the West’s military aid is sent to Ukraine, the Czech News Agency reports.
-
03/17/2023
Reconstruction of the Benedictine monastery of Kladruby in the Plzeň Region has finished after two and a half years of work. From April 1st, visitors to the Kladruby Monastery will be able to see previously inaccessible parts of the building. The largest reconstruction in the modern history of the monastery, which is a national cultural monument, cost CZK 165 million crowns, of which over CZK 100 million came from an EU subsidy.
-
03/17/2023
President Petr Pavel has received a fine of CZK 60,000 from the supervisory authority overseeing the financial management of political parties for failing to provide data on some financial donors to his presidential campaign, such as address and date of birth. The number of donors with missing data has not been made public.
Speaking to journalists during his visit to Poland, Mr Pavel said that if donors do not provide the data themselves, there is no way of getting it from them, adding that CZK 60,000 is the standard fine for minor irregularities and that such things simply happen sometimes.
The fine is the highest granted by the authority to a natural person to date.
-
03/16/2023
According to preliminary data, there were 374 cases of tuberculosis (TB) in Czechia last year. Although this constitutes a slight increase from 2020 and 2021, this figure is still lower than pre-covid rates. 43 percent of cases last year were registered among non-Czechs, more than half of whom were from Ukraine. This information was shared at a press conference on Thursday in advance of World Tuberculosis Day, which falls on March 24.
According to the Czech Ministry of Health, Ukraine is one of the few countries in Europe that still have a relatively high incidence of TB, the others being Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, and Russia.
Universal vaccination of newborns against TB was carried out in the Czech Republic between 1953 and 2010. Since 2010, vaccinations have only been given to children at risk of exposure to TB.
-
03/16/2023
The plans for president Petr Pavel's first 100 days in office have been made public. His top priorities include introducing a transparent process for selecting constitutional judges, opening up more of Prague Castle to the public, and travelling to the Moravian-Silesian region, as well as two other so far undisclosed regions, to talk to local citizens there. He also plans to nominate the first three candidates for the position of constitutional judge, to be approved by the Senate.
-
03/16/2023
President Petr Pavel began his two-day visit to Poland on Thursday. He was received in Warsaw with military honours by Polish president Andrzej Duda. The pair then had a private meeting, during which they discussed their countries' mutual cooperation within the framework of the Bucharest Nine, support for Ukraine, energy security, the upcoming NATO summit, and the transport connection between Czechia and Poland. President Duda expressed appreciation that Mr Pavel visited Poland immediately after Slovakia.
Other items on Mr Pavel's Thursday agenda included meetings with representatives of the Polish parliament, laying a wreath at the grave of the unknown soldier, and dinner with President Duda. The Czech president also plans to meet with Czech compatriots at the Czech embassy on Václav Havel Square.
On Friday, President Pavel will meet with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and visit the European border agency Frontex. He will then fly to Rzeszów Airport in the east of the country, which has served as a shipment point for military aid from Western countries to Ukraine.
This is the new Czech head of state’s second foreign trip in office, following a visit to Slovakia at the start of the week. The Czech president also plans to visit Kyiv next month, following a discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this week.
-
03/16/2023
Friday should be overcast but dry, with daytime temperatures ranging between 4 and 11 degrees Celsius.
-
03/16/2023
The European Commission has sued the Czech Republic, along with seven other countries, for failing to implement the EU's whistleblower directive, and has issued a fine of more than CZK 50 million. A spokesperson for the European Court of Justice announced this on Thursday, adding that the fine will be charged until Czechia complies with the directive and incorporates it into its legal framework.
The EU directive is designed to give whistleblowers in public and private sectors mechanisms to disclose wrongdoing without fear of reprisal. The push for whistleblower protections in the EU came in the wake of the Panama Paper tax evasion scandal in 2016, as well as Facebook user data leaks.
Aside from the Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Hungary and Poland have also received fines.
-
03/16/2023
President Petr Pavel signed the controversial government pensions bill into law on Thursday morning. Under the new bill, the increase in pensions in June will be less than half of what it normally is, with the average monthly pension increasing by CZK 760 instead of the expected CZK 1770.
The government says the reduction is necessary in light of the huge public finance deficit, with the pensions bill saving the state CZK 19.4 billion this year alone, while the opposition criticises it as unconstitutional and hurting some of society's most vulnerable people.
Announcing his decision to journalists on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Pavel said supporting the bill had not been an easy decision.
Pages
- « první
- ‹ předchozí
- …
- 457
- 458
- 459
- 460
- 461
- 462
- 463
- 464
- 465
- …
- následující ›
- poslední »