News

Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka visited the Moravian town of Prerov on Monday to support local officials who are trying to halt demolition work on a historical building. The Culture Ministry wants to put the early 20th century building back on the list of cultural monuments after having removed it six months ago. In the meantime, however, a local building firm had begun work on demolishing the building despite protests from architectural experts and the Culture Ministry.

Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg has dismissed Russian President Vladimír Putin's criticism of American plans to build a missile defence system in the Czech Republic and Poland. Speaking at an international security summit in Munich, Mr Putin had said that the United State's defence plans were unnecessary and would only precipitate a new arms race and breed insecurity. Mr Schwarzenberg ironically thanked the Russian president for his remarks, saying they helped publicise the conference. He described Mr Putin's speech as harsh and said that the Russian president was now adopting a position similar to that of the former Soviet Union. The foreign minister added that Mr Putin's remarks only served to underline the need for NATO to continue expanding.

If the American missile defence plans are approved by the Czech parliament, it will see the construction of a radar base in the Brdy region south of Prague as part of a new missile defence system in Europe.

The Green Party Minister for the Environment Martin Bursik has announced that a new environmental tax reform should be in place by January 2008, which would see an increase of around ten percent in coal prices. The January deadline for the reform has been set by the European Union, which hopes to gradually introduce a series of environmental taxes over the next decade aimed at encouraging companies and individuals to be more eco-friendly. Mr Bursik added that the introduction of this tax would only have a slight impact on the price of gas and electricity. New laws will have to be adopted this year in order for the reform to be implemented on time.

Czech Social Democrat chairman and former Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has accused the party's ex-leader Milos Zeman of being "at least ideologically responsible" for the fact that two Social Democrat deputies had not opposed the centre-right government of Mirek Topolanek in a recent confidence vote. In January, Social Democrat MPs Milos Melcak and Michal Pohanka defied the party whip by not participating in a vote of confidence in the Civic-Democrat-led coalition, which enabled it to remain in power. Mr Paroubek told the Pravo daily on Saturday that people close to Mr Zeman were behind their defection. Mr Zeman, for his part described the Social Democrat leadership in Lidove noviny as being "very unprofessional" for kicking the rebel MPs out of the party and for calling them "traitors" who had accepted bribes to support the government. Mr Zeman also criticised Mr Paroubek and other party leaders for being more interested in power and lucrative posts than a coherent programme for government. This latest spat is being seen as a sign of how relations have soured between the former political allies in recent months.