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The Lower House of Parliament has sent into its second reading an income tax bill that introduces joint taxation for married couples and tax relief for families with children. If the bill makes it through both houses of Parliament, families with children can expect an annual discount of six thousand crowns per child. The Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said the bill envisaged the biggest tax cuts for families with children in Czech history.

On an official visit to Poland, the Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross called for closer cooperation within the Visegrad Group. The Visegrad group is a loose alliance of central and east European states established after the fall of communism, which later became instrumental in helping its members to meet the EU criteria for membership. During a meeting with his Polish counterpart Marek Belka in Warsaw, Mr. Gross argued that if the new EU members coordinated their policy more effectively they could achieve more. The two prime ministers also discussed the possibility of further EU enlargement to include Turkey. Mr. Gross said he was convinced that Turkey had a future in Europe if it could meet EU criteria.

A woman who allegedly collected money for Chechen armed groups in several states, including the Czech Republic, has been arrested in Chechnya, according to the Russian Intelligence Service. Natallia Khalkayeva, 31, allegedly operated in the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland, collecting money and helping to select suicide bombers. She was arrested in Chechnya carrying a belt of explosives and a satellite telephone.

The Deputy Chairman of the Czech Communist Party, Jiri Dolejs, has said he and two other Communists MPs would likely vote to override President Vaclav Klaus's veto on the introduction of a European Arrest Warrant. The vote in the lower house of Parliament is scheduled for Friday. Most Communist deputies argue that adopting the European Arrest Warrant should be preceded the adoption of an amendment to the Charter of Basic Human Rights and Freedoms, which would allow the extradition of Czech citizens abroad. Without the amendment, both the Communist and the main opposition Civic Democrats, of which President Klaus was chairman, consider the bill to be unconstitutional. The European Arrest warrant only relates to serious crime such as terrorism, trafficking in drugs, people or weapons, murder, rape, and engaging in paedophilia.

Deputies are also due to vote on Friday on bills relating to reforming the educational system reform and the abolition of compulsory national military service.