• Fischer: energy security as fundamental as defence
    03/16/2010

    Interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer said Tuesday that energy security is as fundamental a part of Czech foreign policy as the country’s defensive capability. Speaking at the 10th Czech Energy Conference, Mr Fischer pointed out that while the country had an alliance to rely on for defence, it had nothing of the sort where energy issues are concerned. He said it was in the country’s best interests to participate in creating a joint European energy policy and thus protect against extortion and a “fatal stoppage of supplies”. Mr Fischer also warned politicians that energy planning was not an issue for the next election period, but for the next 50 years.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • Police investigating two in multi-billion crown corruption case
    03/16/2010

    Anticorruption police are investigating two managerial employees of the office of the Southwest Regional Council for illegal distribution of grant money. Police believe that the two may have been involved in influencing the selection of projects that would benefit from several billion crowns in EU funding. At the behest of the police, the Ministry of Finance halted a nearly completed tender process for a series of public developmental projects in the Southwest region amounting to 3.8 billion crowns. A police raid of the office carried out at the end of last year did not result in any arrests. The charges of influencing a public tender and damaging the interests of the European Community carry sentences of up to 12 years imprisonment.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • Government approves proposal seeking to boost integration in Czech schools
    03/16/2010

    On Monday, the government approved a proposal to open schools designed to integrate socially disadvantaged and disabled children. The measure is meant to address the lack of integration in the Czech school system and seeks to facilitate co-education of disabled and healthy children, as well as to include children from socially weak families, including children of Romany origin. One of the possible ways of helping to integrate these students would be to introduce a mandatory pre-school year to help bring children’s abilities to an elementary school level. The proposal also seeks to increase the number of staff trained to address the needs of disabled students and students who have a hard time keeping up with the class.
    Author: Christian Falvey

  • Romany family becomes victim of arson attack
    03/15/2010

    A Molotov cocktail was thrown into the home of a Romany family in the North Moravian town of Ostrava late on Saturday night, Czech TV reported on Monday. The bottle landed in the bedroom of a 14 year old girl who was able to extinguish the burning bottle before it caused further damage. Nobody was injured in the attack. The perpetrators are yet unknown, police are investigating the case as a threat to public safety.

    In April of last year, a Romany family in the Moravian town of Vítkov was victim of a racially motivated arson attack. The family’s two-year-old daughter suffered severe burns and had to undergo numerous operations before being released from the hospital in November.
    Author: Sarah Borufka

  • Bavarian crime statistics indicate record low
    03/15/2010

    The Bavarian interior minister, Joachim Hermann, said on Monday that road checks in the Czech-German border areas must continue in view of curbing crime. The minister said newly published crime statistics indicate that Bavaria last year saw the lowest number of criminal acts since 1992. Czechs were at the top of the statistics of incidents where foreigners smuggled drugs into Bavaria. At the same time, car theft along the border with the Czech Republic increased. Mr. Herrmann said the key to success was in effective cross-border cooperation.

    Increased controls of Czech drivers in Bavaria had lead the former prime minister, Mírek Topolánek, to criticize the Bavarian and German governments, stating that the controls constituted harassment and should cease immediately.
    Author: Sarah Borufka

  • Over half of all Prague restaurants are planning to ban smoking on premises
    03/15/2010

    Pavel Hlinka, the president of the Czech Association of Restaurants and Hotels, said on Sunday that about fifty percent of Prague pubs and the majority of upscale restaurants are planning to change into non-smoking establishments as of July. Within a new law aiming to curb smoking in public that takes effect on July 1, restaurants and bars will be obliged to display stickers that indicate whether smoking is allowed on their premises or not. Outside of Prague, the number of establishments planning to ban smoking is significantly lower, Mr. Hlinka added. Although the respective legislation was approved by Parliament last summer, bar and restaurant owners were given a year to prepare for the introduction of the new measure.
    Author: Sarah Borufka

  • Government approves proposal seeking to boost integration in Czech schools
    03/15/2010

    On Monday, the government approved a proposal to open schools designed to integrate socially disadvantaged and disabled children. The measure is meant to address the lack of integration in the Czech school system and seeks to facilitate co-education of disabled and healthy children, as well as to include children from socially weak families, including children of Romany origin. One of the possible ways of helping to integrate these students would be to introduce a mandatory pre-school year to help bring children’s abilities to an elementary school level. The proposal also seeks to increase the number of staff trained to address the needs of disabled students and students who have a hard time keeping up with the class.
    Author: Sarah Borufka

  • Government grants extraordinary funds to Ministry of Transport to repair roads damaged by harsh weather conditions
    03/15/2010

    The government on Monday decided to grant extraordinary funds of 2.25 billion Czech crowns to the Ministry of Transport to help repair roads and railways that were badly damaged by the harsh winter. The ministry estimates damages to the tune of 6.5 billion crowns, which is about 4 billion more than the projected sum. After the Ministry of Finance had refused to cover the difference, Gustav Slamecka, the minister of transport, asked the government to cover part of the remaining funds needed to repair Czech roads.
    Author: Sarah Borufka

  • Business Europe: Czech economy deals well with global financial crisis
    03/15/2010

    According to an assessment published by Business Europe, an EU association of employers, the Czech Republic is one of the EU countries that are successful in addressing the challenges posed by the global financial crisis. Business Europe’s assessment suggests that the Czech Republic’s economy is well on the way to catching up with the more advanced EU states. In the area of export, the Czech Republic ranks fourth amongst 29 countries that include EU member states as well as Norway and Switzerland. Among the weak points of the Czech economy, the assessment cited low productivity along with the cost of labor.
    Author: Sarah Borufka

  • Customs police uncover counterfeit goods worth 6 million Czech crowns
    03/15/2010

    On Saturday, customs officers in the Moravian town of Brno uncovered counterfeit designer purses and clothes valued at about six million Czech crowns, a police spokeswoman said on Monday. Officers uncovered the fake designer goods during a routine inspection at a local market where they discovered a retail stand that was unlocked and unattended. After searching the stand, the police found a secret storage area behind a mirror where the owners had hidden the counterfeit goods. The find is one of this year’s biggest. The stand’s owners could face a fine of up to five million crowns.
    Author: Sarah Borufka

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