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Reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 55 percent compared to 1990 in the next ten years is unrealistic in the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told reporters shortly after he and the heads of the three other Visegrad group states met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday.

Last week, the Commission proposed tightening the emission target for 2030, while the current plan envisages a 40 percent decrease compared to 1990.

The talks also focussed on the coronavirus crisis, where Mr. Babiš called for greater cooperation among Europe’s leading epidemiologists, and newly proposed migration polices with a system of "mandatory solidarity" by all states.

The proposals include tougher border checks and new rules on deportation. The Visegrag group stressed the need to intensify the fight against people smugglers.

Mr. Babiš said it was important for individual states to be able to choose in what way they would demonstrate solidarity. He did not say whether Prague would be willing to engage in the deportation of migrants who were refused asylum in the EU.

From Thursday all pubs and restaurants in the Czech Republic must close their doors at 10 pm, as part of new restrictions aimed at halting a major spike in Covid-19 cases that will be in place for the next fortnight.

Another measure announced by the minister of health, Roman Prymula, sees the maximum crowd at outdoor sporting and arts events capped at 2,000. For indoor sports the number is 1,000 seated people, as long as they are separated into different sectors.

Only 50 people may stand at outdoor events, whereas indoors the maximum is 10.

Czechs will not meet pledge to NATO to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence

The Czech Republic will not fulfil its pledge to NATO to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defence by the year 2024. The minister of finance, Alena Schillerová, made a statement to that effect after discussions of the Ministry of Defence’s budget on Wednesday. The minister of defence, Lubomír Metnar, said the main thing was that the trajectory of spending on defence was headed toward 2 percent.

The Czech Republic has repeatedly committed itself to reaching that level of military spending by 2024, with both Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and President Miloš Zeman promising that it would happen.

The country’s coronavirus task force has decided to beef up mobile electoral commissions so that they can serve up to 16,000 voters in quarantine in Senate and regional elections early next month. The head of the Central Crisis Staff, Interior Minister Jan Hamáček, made the announcement after it met on Wednesday.

Mr. Hamáček said the situation surrounding the Covid-19 epidemic remained serious but that the spread of the virus at present corresponded to the government’s “medium” scenario. If things remain that way, there is no danger of the Czech healthcare system being overwhelmed, he said. At present 581 people are in hospital with Covid-19 and there are over 26,000 active cases.