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Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek has not ruled out a bailout for the group Bohemia Crystalex Trading, which is in bankruptcy proceedings. The minister made the statement in response to an appeal for help from the glass manufacturer’s managers and trade unions who have sought to find a means of keeping the group afloat. Mr. Kalousek said that a financial injection from the state would have to be based on guarantees that the companies’ losses would not deepen and that renewed production would gradually start making a profit. Analysts have put the down-turn in the Czech glass-making business to a lack of inventiveness and new design, saying that thanks to its skilled glass masters the business still has a chance to recover.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek will replace four ministers in a planned cabinet reshuffle. The replacement will involve Health Care Minister Tomáš Julínek and Transport Minister Aleš Řebíček, both from the senior coalition Civic Democrats; Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Džamila Stehlíková, nominated by the Green Party, and Christian Democrat leader Jiří Čunek, who announced his resignation as deputy PM earlier on Monday. While the Prime Minister has not yet revealed who will replace the two Civic Democratic ministers, the Christian Democrat leadership has proposed that the deputy premiership should be assumed by the current Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanová and Cyril Svoboda should become the new regional development minister. Rock musician Michael Kocáb is expected to replace Ms Stehlíková as the minister for human rights and minorities.

Czech trade unions have postponed a decision on an unlimited strike in public transport over planned taxation of employees’ benefits pending Wednesday’s meeting with Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek. A trade union spokesperson said the strike, which would affect trains, buses and Prague’s municipal transport, would take place if the Finance Ministry does not abandon its plan to tax employees’ benefits including free travel passes and food vouchers.

An artefact entitled “Entropa” was unveiled in the seat of the European Commission in Brussels on Monday on the occasion of the Czech presidency of the European Union. The sculpture, created by Czech artist David Černý together with 26 artists from EU member states, has the form of a plastic kit of Europe in which each country is presented through clichés and stereotypes. The Czech Republic is depicted with a screen displaying controversial statements by President Václav Klaus; the Netherlands is shown flooded with only minarets sticking out of the water, Austria is covered with nuclear power plants and Sweden is depicted as an IKEA box with Grippen jet fighters. The sculpture will remain in Brussels until the end of the Czech EU presidency in June.