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Eight historical buildings, mainly châteaus, castles and monasteries, have been added to Czechia's list of national cultural monuments. The government approved their status on Wednesday. Among the new national cultural monuments is the Augustinian monastery in Brno where Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of inheritance by cross-breeding pea plants. Two other Augustinian monasteries and five castles and châteaus around the country were also awarded the status.

Currently there are over 300 national cultural monuments registered in the country, including famous sights such as Charles Bridge, Villa Tugendhat in Brno and the archaeological site of Dolní Věstonice. National cultural monuments receive more protection than cultural monuments, of which there are many more. Proposals for national cultural monuments must be discussed by the government, unlike cultural monuments, which are approved by the Ministry of Culture alone.

Countries with coastlines have an obligation under international law to allow humanitarian ships carrying rescued migrants into their ports without delay, Czech Minister for European Affairs Mikuláš Bek told the European Parliament on Wednesday during a debate on migration.

According to the Czech News Agency, Mr. Bek was indirectly alluding to the recent dispute between Italy and France regarding the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking, to which Italy refused to grant a port. The ship had to wait two weeks at sea for a port to be assigned before eventually docking in France. The vessel was carrying migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea.

In his speech to the EP, Mr. Bek said that rescuing people from drowning is a humanitarian imperative and duty, that all states must respect international and EU rules and assign the nearest port where migrants can safely disembark, that there should be more cooperation with migrants' origin countries and that more action should be taken against people smugglers.

Due to the growing number of migrants entering the EU, the asylum and immigration systems of several EU member states have been under pressure recently. The EU border agency Frontex registered 70 percent more illegal entries to the EU from January to the end of September than in the same period last year.

The Czech economy will decline next year after growing by 2.3 percent this year, with gross domestic product falling by about half a percentage point, according to a forecast released by the International Monetary Fund.

In its October global outlook, the IMF predicted that the Czech economy would grow by 1.9 percent this year and 1.5 percent next year. The IMF’s estimates are more pessimistic than the Czech finance ministry's November forecast, which predicts that the Czech economy will grow by 2.4 percent this year and decline by 0.2 percent next year.

The participation of Czech soldiers in foreign missions is irreplaceable, since Czechia as a NATO member is co-responsible for global security, Czech president Miloš Zeman said on Tuesday at the army command assembly.

In his address to the assembly, the Czech head of state also reiterated his full support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.  However, he said the other enemy, international terrorism, must not be forgotten either.

Mr Zeman said it was his last address to the army command assembly as president. Although there is usually another meeting held in February, the head of state has not attended it in recent years due to health problems.