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Prime Minister Spidla also said that he was satisfied with a bilateral declaration about the safety of the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant, on which he had agreed with the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel on Friday night. The declaration will include a single sentence that the two countries will fulfil the obligations from the previous agreements, that is the conclusions of the "Melk process" and the subsequent process since November 2001. Austrians failed to push through any mention about the jurisdiction of the European Court or a reference to the Euratom treaty with which Prague disagreed. The declaration will be attached to the Accession Treaty. The Temelin nuclear plant which is situated in south Bohemia close to Austrian and German borders, is sharply criticised by Austria and Bavaria as well as environmentalists who say it is not safe because it combines Soviet design and western fuel and safety technology.

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.

Austria is reportedly trying to forge an agreement with the Czech Republic on the Temelin nuclear power plant in south Bohemia. Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda held talks with his Austrian counterpart on the sidelines of the Copenhagen EU summit on Friday, and said afterwards that Prague was not willing to make a bilateral agreement on the plant. Other EU members are opposed to Austria's desire to have a clause on Temelin included in the Czech Republic's accession agreement. The plant's critics say it is unsafe.

As the Copenhagen summit got underway, Czech farmers blocked several key border crossings with the EU in protest of the level of farming aid the country will receive upon entry. Hundreds of farmers used tractors and other equipment to cut off passage to Austria and Germany leaving long lines of cars stranded on both sides of the border for over two hours. The EU has proposed phasing in income support for farmers starting from 25 percent of the level received by farmers in the current EU member states and allowing the candidates to use cash from EU rural development funds and national budgets to top up those payments to 50 percent or more. Czech farmers are unhappy with the proposal expressing the view that the country's ticket to the EU will cost them their livelihood. Farming accounts for only two percent of the Czech Republic's GDP and employs about four percent of the working population.