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The vice-governor of the Czech National Bank, Mojmír Hampl, said that due to the current problems of the Eurozone, it made no sense to talk about any concrete deadline for the adoption of the euro in the Czech Republic. Speaking at a seminar held by the Czech Exporters’ Association, Mr Hampl said the European Union and the Eurozone faced a complicated debate on its future economic policies. The demand on the side of the Eurozone to accept new members also decreased, according to Mojmír Hampl. Most experts and politicians believe the Czech Republic could adopt the euro in 2015 at the earliest.

The Greek embassy in Prague was attacked with a Molotov cocktail in the early hours of Thursday, Czech police said. The bottle with flammable liquid landed in the embassy’s garden, and damaged the main entrance to the building. Fire-fighters were able to put out fire before it could cause further damage. Nobody was injured in the incident as the embassy was empty at the time. A spokeswoman for the fire brigade said the fact that the embassy is part of Greek sovereign territory somewhat complicated the emergency operation.

A member of the Greek mission told Radio Impuls the attack was not related to the current economic situation in Greece; it was rather an act in support of a Greek anarchist, Janis Dimitrákis, who recently landed a prison sentence.

The German-owned, Czech-based car producer Škoda Auto posted a 561-percent increase in profits in the first quarter of 2010 year-on-year. The car maker made just over 2 billion crowns, or more than 107 million US dollars over the first three months of this year, with revenues increasing by 32 percent to 52.5 billion crowns. The company sold nearly 180,000 cars, which was some 25 percent more than last year. The head of Škoda board of directors, Reinhard Fleger, said the firm expected higher sales for the rest of the year despite continuing uncertainty at world markets.

The city of Zlín, in eastern Moravia, stripped on Thursday the communist dictator and Czechoslovak president Klement Gottwald of freedom of the city he was awarded in 1946. The motion was supported by 34 out of 38 council members; two communist councilmen voted against it. In 1949, the city of Zlín, where the Baťa shoe company was based, was renamed Gottwaldov, in honour of Klement Gottwald, who led the communist coup in 1948, and served as the country’s first communist president until his death in 1953.