News

The European Commission’s newly published economic forecast expects the Czech economy to grow by 0.1 percent next year.

This is significantly less than the two-percent growth predicted by the Commission in its previous forecast released in February.

According to the European Commission, growth will be hindered by the ongoing war in Ukraine and the related energy crisis.

The Commission also raised its estimate of the inflation rate, which is expected to reach 15.6 percent this year, the highest in the EU after the three Baltic States.

On the other hand, unemployment in Czechia should remain the lowest among the 27 countries this year at 2.7 percent.

Czechs are marking International Veterans Day, which is celebrated internationally on November 11, the anniversary of the end of World War I.

A traditional ceremony took place at the national memorial on Prague’s Vítkov Hill on Friday morning. The event was attended by Defence Minister Jana Černochová and other public figures, who honoured the memory of the fallen by laying flowers and observing a minute’s silence.

Commemorations have been taking place in other Bohemian and Moravian cities. Poppies, the first flower seen to grow in the battlefields on the graves of fallen soldiers after WWI, have been planted on Moravské náměstí square in Brno, and people could purchase them to contribute to the care of war veterans and to the activities of the National Memory project.

After three rounds of negotiations, the wording of a Czech-American defence cooperation treaty has been agreed on at a working level, the Czech News Agency reported on Thursday. The Ministry of Defence says that the details remain to be fine-tuned in the coming weeks but that it should be possible to complete the negotiations by the end of the year.

The defence treaty is intended to legally ensure the presence of American soldiers on Czech territory. So far, 24 other NATO member countries, including Slovakia, have concluded similar agreements with the United States.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský met with his Georgian counterpart, Ilia Darchiashvili, in Tbilisi on Thursday, the final day of his two-day visit to Georgia. The pair discussed bilateral cooperation, the importance of continuing high-level political dialogue, and Georgia’s EU aspirations.

After the meeting Mr. Lipavský stated on Twitter that he assured Mr. Darchiashvili of Czechia's support for Georgia joining the EU. The Georgian foreign minister praised Czech support for Georgia's EU membership ambitions and the Czech Republic's performance in its role as the EU Council's presiding country.

Lipavský subsequently met with leaders of the Georgian opposition and representatives of non-governmental organizations at the Czech embassy. He then went to look at the border with the Russian separatist region of South Ossetia, which Georgia considers occupied territory, and met with Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, before flying home.