News

The Chamber of Deputies has nodded to a bill that would legalize marriage for same sex couples. The bill was approved in its first reading, after four failed attempts in the past, and remains highly controversial. MPs were involved in heated debates primarily as to whether the union of same-sex couples should be called a "marriage" or something entirely different. The issue is dividing parties across the political spectrum. The draft will now be submitted to the members of the Constitutional Law Committee for consideration. It will have four months to review the draft instead of the usual two.

Before leaving for the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said at a press conference that ANO leader Andrej Babiš's calls to veto the EU's migration rules were nothing more than demagoguery and scaremongering. He reiterated that the proposal does not contain mandatory refugee relocation quotas, but rather corresponds to the long-term position of the Czech government on the issue of migration, including what Andrej Babiš had himself advocated for when he was prime minister.

Leaders of EU countries are meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to discuss topics including migration and how to limit the number of refugees coming to Europe. The draft migration and asylum rules were agreed upon by EU member states in Luxembourg at the beginning of June.

The Czech government has agreed to a ban on Russian athletes and sports teams participating in sporting competitions on Czech soil, along with a similar ban on Czech athletes participating in competitions in Russia. The proposal was put forward by sports unions as a response to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and was supported by the National Sports Agency and the Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek.

Russian and Belarusian athletes have been barred from most international competitions since last spring. The Czech Olympic Committee is against any form of participation by Russia and Belarus in the Olympic Games in Paris next year. Two weeks ago, the committee proposed that Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in the tournament under a neutral flag must sign an oath condemning aggression against any UN member state by another.

The Czech audio-visual industry achieved a record turnover of CZK 15.4 billion in 2022, surpassing so-far the best turnover of CZK 12 billion from 2021, the Audiovisual Producers’ Association informed in its annual report released on Thursday.

Last year, incentives rose by a record CZK 570 million to CZK 1.37 billion, and this year the government has allocated CZK 1.4 billion in the budget of the Cinema Fund for incentives.

However, incentives are currently on hold again and producers have warned it could lead to an outflow of foreign projects.