News

Preparations are underway for celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the country’s accession to the European Union on May 1st. The authorities are planning a series of events including conferences, exhibitions and concerts. An international conference entitled “The Czechs through the eyes of Europe, Europe through the eyes of Czechs” is taking place at Prague Castle this Friday. It will be addressed by President Miloš Zeman, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, EU Commissioner for Expansion Stefan Fule and former Italian prime minister Mario Monti, among others. EU President Herman van Rompoy will be present at the celebrations, arriving in Prague on April 30.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Finance Minister Andrej Babiš on Tuesday failed to reach agreement on a state contribution to hospitals in compensation for the hospital fees that were scrapped at the beginning of this year. Although the government has approved a proposal to give hospitals 2.1 billion crowns in 2014 the two sides are still at odds over what financial assistance hospitals should get in the coming years. Finance Minister Babiš argues that hospitals could save vast amounts of money though better management and is opposed to generous hand-outs from state coffers. The issue will be debated again at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.

The former Palestinian ambassador in Prague, Muhammad Jamal, who died in an explosion on New Year’s Day, was killed by a semtex charge concealed in a book, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes reported on Tuesday quoting police sources. An investigator told the paper the police was now only working with one version of what happened; the Palestinian diplomat was going through old things at the embassy with no knowledge there were two explosive charges among them. The police said last month he died after the charge exploded in his hands. The police are reportedly nearly 100 percent positive the explosive was the Czechoslovak-made semtex from the 1970s.

The Civic Democrats will give back one million crowns they had received under suspicious circumstances, party chair Petr Fiala told a news conference in Prague on Monday. The party received the donation in 2013 from a 22-year-old woman on a maternity leave; Czech medial reported she owns no property, and speculated the real donor might have been her partner, an entrepreneur in medical products. The Civic Democrats said they would give the money back despite the fact no law was breached, and that they would tighten the rules for accepting donations in the future.