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The Prague authorities have decided to extend an experiment under which the city centre embankment Smetanovo nábřeží, which is near Charles Bridge on the Old Town side of the river, has been closed to traffic. The restrictions will remain in place for another week while more data is collected on their impact. This will be used to help weigh up long-term closures on both banks of the Vltava.

Smetanovo nábřeží has been closed since October 29. Last Monday City Hall also closed the road between Valdštejnská St. and Újezd on the opposite side of the river to traffic.

The EU has given final approval to a proposal that will allow member states that have a problem with carousel tax fraud to apply a generalized reversal of VAT liability.

This is something Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has fought for for four and a half years on the argument that use of reverse charge could save the country around 80 billion crowns lost every year in unpaid VAT.

However Finance Minister Alena Schillerová said on Friday that it will take almost a year to get the respective legislation in place so that the ministry can introduce a generalized reversal of VAT liability in this country.

The EU member states who choose to do so will be able to use the generalized reverse charge mechanism only for domestic supplies of goods and services above a threshold of 17, 500 euros (around 450,000 crowns) per transaction and only up until June 30, 2022, when the outcome of the exemption will be reviewed.

Fifty-four percent of Czech households say they have no trouble meeting their needs on their present income, according to the results of a poll conducted by the CVVM agency. That is the highest number in 17 years when polling on the subject first started.

Twenty-four percent of households consider themselves poor, which is two percent more than last year. Sixty-six percent of households do not consider themselves either rich or poor, but claim that they can meet their basic needs.

However only half of households have enough left at the end of the month to put money aside and a third say they cannot afford to support their elderly parents or go on foreign holidays.

The Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill that will enable Czech citizens to communicate with state institutions electronically as of 2020.

According to the proposed law on digital services people will also no longer have to provide the same information to different institutions, and civil servants will be expected to seek it out themselves from electronic registers.

Paper forms will be preserved, mainly for the sake of senior citizens.

The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate and signed into law by the president. The process is expected to be smooth.