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A new poll released by the Factum agency has suggested that if elections were held today they would see a dead-heat between the opposition, right-of-centre Civic Democrats and the ruling Social Democratic Party. According to the poll, the Social Democrats would now get around 28 percent of the vote, with the Civic Democrats garnering 30 percent. Under current conditions only two other parties would make it into Parliament: the Communist Party and the Christian Democrats. The prognosis, says Factum, indicates that if elections were held now the Social Democrats could play a role in two possible majority governments: ruling either together with the Communist Party or joining a so-called "grand coalition" with the Civic Democrats.

Meanwhile, the Czech President Vaclav Klaus heavily criticised the British EU budget proposal during a visit to the east Bohemian town of Pardubice on Tuesday. While he has no objections to an overall reduction of the budget, the current proposal was drawn up to the detriment of the new member states and is therefore unjust, he said.

The lower house of Parliament has agreed to support the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union. This is the first time that the Czech Parliament voted on EU enlargement since the Czech Republic joined the Union in May 2004. The earliest possible date when Bulgaria and Romania could join the European Union is January 1 2007. None of the deputies present voted against the two countries' accession; one deputy abstained from the vote.

The Czech President Vaclav Klaus has said that the Czech Republic needs to clearly define its own conditions for joining the eurozone. Speaking at a conference organised by the weekly Euro in Prague, President Klaus said Czech politicians and some economists only cite the Maastricht criteria but he said the country should set itself the conditions under which it wants to enter the European Monetary Union. The Maastricht criteria set limits for national debt, inflation, budget deficit and long-term interest rate. The Czech Republic, which does not comply with the budget deficit limit condition, is expected to adopt the euro in 2010, in line with a plan approved by the government two weeks ago.