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The Czech Army’s international, multi-discipline Winter Survival championship began on Sunday in the Jeseník Mountains. The events in the competition involve adrenaline sports and combat activities that simulate military situations in winter terrains. 59 men and one woman will compete in regrouping in mountain terrain, climbing, natural obstacle courses and transporting casualties. The four-day race will include from the Czech Republic, Belgium, Poland and Slovakia. It is organised annually by the General Staff of the Czech Army and the Defence University in Brno.

The National Gallery has announced it will be opening its doors free of charge to visitors next weekend to celebrate the 214th anniversary of its founding. In addition to the permanent exhibits in the main building, a number of events will be taking place in the gallery’s outlying venues, such as tours of the Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia and Šternberk Palace, where there will be an exhibition of European art from antiquity to the baroque period and an archaeological exposition. Details are available on the website of the National Gallery at ngprague.cz.

The European Court of Justice in Luxemburg will be reviewing a case involving pensions paid by the Slovak state to Czechs who worked there when the two countries were united. The court, the highest in the European Union, has been asked to hear the case by the Supreme Administrative Court in Prague, which suspended proceedings on the matter due to legal ambiguities. The outcome of the suit against the Czech Social Security Administration would affect thousands of Czechs who worked in Slovakia or for Slovakia-based offices and now receive pensions for work abroad. The Czech Constitutional Court has already ruled that such work carried out in the former Czechoslovakia cannot be considered “work abroad”. The pensions currently received by such workers are several thousands of crowns per month less than they would receive under the Czech pensions system.

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy is continuing his first official visit to Prague after meeting Friday with the Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, and President Václav Klaus, the latter a well known opponent of EU integration and the Lisbon Treaty. Notably neglecting to use the title of EU President, Mr Klaus told journalists that he was receiving Mr Van Rompuy as he would any other “high-ranking EU official”, and said that the meeting had done nothing to change his view of the European Union. After talks with Prime Minister Fischer, Mr Rompuy said they had agreed that the EU must continue with aid to Haiti even after media attention begins to wane, and that an upcoming international conference would be key to organising long-term support for the earthquake-stricken country, which the European Union has promised 429 million euros in immediate humanitarian aid. Mr. Herman Van Rompuy took up the post of EU President on January 1 and has since conducted a tour of EU member states.