-
11/29/2006
Premysl Sobotka of the right-of-centre Civic Democrats has been re-elected to the post of Senate chairman. On Wednesday, 74 out of 77 senators present supported him in a secret ballot. It was the highest support for any chairman in the upper house's ten-year history. Mr Sobotka's party has a majority in the senate, holding 41 of 81 seats. Regarding his continuing on in the post, Mr Sobotka said one of his priorities was to increase the Senate's role in foreign policy.
-
11/29/2006
Wednesday's lower house session had to be interrupted after a row broke out between MPs of the two strongest parties. The deputies were in their first reading of laws and contracts when the Social Democrats and Civic Democrats clashed over a proposal to fully dissolve the Ministry of Information Technology in 2007. The war of words was sparked off by a remark made by former health minister and Social Democrat MP David Rath. He accused Civic Democrat Interior Minister Ivan Langer of being particularly eager to take over one of the IT ministry's projects because he would benefit from it personally.
-
11/29/2006
The Austrian company Kapsch will not be able to launch test operations of a new road toll system this Friday. The transport ministry has not given the test run the green light. The ministry says some toll gates are hundreds of metres from where they were supposed to be. It also criticises the use of diesel units. Without the test operation, the introduction of the country's first electronic road toll system for vehicles above 12 tonnes cannot be launched on January 1. The new system is estimated to bring in around 10.5 billion crowns (over 4.5 million US dollars) a year.
-
11/29/2006
Tests have confirmed the Czech Republic's 25th case of BSE, or mad cow disease. The State Veterinary Authority reported on Wednesday that the infected cow was from a farm near Semily in northeast Bohemia. Some two hundred cows will have to be slaughtered as a precautionary measure. Since 2001, when the first case of BSE was recorded, over one million cows have been tested.
-
11/28/2006
The leaders of the two strongest parties, Civic Democrat Mirek Topolanek and Social Democrat Jiri Paroubek, have agreed to start talks on a joint government policy programme. The politicians met for over an hour on Tuesday after the Social Democrats rejected the idea of a four party coalition including the Greens and the Christian Democrats but excluding the Communists that would serve until early elections in 2008.
In almost six months since the elections in June, the five parties in parliament have not been able to agree on the make-up of a new government. Under what they call Agenda 2010, the Social Democrats see a three-party coalition government with the Civic Democrats and the Christian Democrats - with a mandate until 2010 - as the best way out of political deadlock.
-
11/28/2006
President Vaclav Klaus has held an unexpected meeting with the leader of the Social Democrats Jiri Paroubek. Mr Paroubek officially informed the president about his party's stance on the current political situation and presented him with the Social Democrats' Agenda 2010 policy programme.
While the Christian Democrats are prepared to give Agenda 2010 a chance, the Civic Democrats have been sceptical, saying it is too "social democratic".
-
11/28/2006
The Czech economy will enjoy more growth but could suffer if the country's political stalemate continues, a new OECD report warns. While GDP rose by 6.1 percent last year, it is expected to rise by 6.2 percent this year and 4.8 percent in 2007. But the OECD warns that the country's lack of a stable government is slowing down reform, which could in turn slow down growth.
-
11/28/2006
The Czech Republic has blocked the EU's plans to raise the minimum level of taxes on beer, finance minister Vlastimil Tlusty told reporters on Tuesday. With the minimum duty on most wines zero percent, a tax hike on beer would raise competition levels between brewers and winemakers, he said, adding that the changes are unacceptable in a country where beer is a national product. Last month the European Commission proposed a 31 percent increase in the minimum duty on beer and spirits.
-
11/28/2006
Czechs could be able to travel to the United States without a visa within the next two years, says foreign minister Alexander Vondra. Mr Vondra was reacting to Tuesday's pledge by US President George Bush to work with Congress to make it easier for some countries to be included in the visa-waiver programme. Mr Vondra says it is probable that the Czech Republic will be among the countries that will benefit as President Bush is warming up to the European Union's requests to include all EU states in the visa-waiver programme.
-
11/28/2006
The Czech Republic is considering filing a complaint with the European Commission against the Austrian authorities. Czech Ambassador to Vienna, Jan Koukal, says the Austrians had violated a bilateral agreement when they approved a blockade of a Czech-Austrian border crossing in protest at the Temelin nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia. Based on the Melk agreement of December 2000, Austria should not object to the Temelin plant going into full operation as it has passed an environmental assessment study.
Pages
- « první
- ‹ předchozí
- …
- 5733
- 5734
- 5735
- 5736
- 5737
- 5738
- 5739
- 5740
- 5741
- …
- následující ›
- poslední »