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Austrian opposition parties have accused Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner of not lobbying hard enough for the interests of Austria during the EU summit in Copenhagen. Referring to the EU's refusal to have a relevant clause on the Temelin nuclear power plant included in the Czech Republic's EU membership agreement, the Deputy Leader of the Green Party, Eva Glawischnig said on Monday that Mr Schuessel had "led Austrians up the garden path". She added that the Austrian strategy had "utterly failed" as Chancellor Schuessel's conservative People's Party had always claimed that a bilateral accord with the Czech Republic on safety at the South Bohemian nuclear power station would be subject to European Court jurisdiction once the Czechs joined the EU.

Leaders from the fifteen European Union states and ten mainly ex-communist candidates agreed on final entry terms on Friday at the EU summit in Copenhagen, ending years of negotiation and decades of division. The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who steered the milestone summit to its successful conclusion despite last-minute snags and bickering over funding for future members, said that "one of the darkest and bloodiest chapters in European history" had been closed. The new members, expected to join the bloc in 2004, will be Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

The Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla said on Saturday that the Czech Republic could join the single European currency, the euro, in 2009-2010, although no date had been set and the Czech Republic did not want to force the matter. Mr Spidla also said accession to the euro would be very complex, but he added that the country must not stay in isolation as the Czech currency was fragile and vulnerable, and if alone it would not be capable of standing speculators' attacks.

The Christian Democratic Party, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, has nominated Senate Chairman Petr Pithart as their official candidate for the presidential office. The senior coalition partner, the Social Democrats have put forward former Justice Minister Jaroslav Bures. The opposition Civic Democrats' candidate is their long-time leader Vaclav Klaus, and the Communists say they will support former communist-era military prosecutor Miroslav Krizenecky. The presidential election is expected to take place in February, after Vaclav Havel's last term of office ends. It is widely expected that no candidate will get enough support in the parliament to be elected in the first attempt.