• 07/16/2024

    The legendary American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan will perform three concerts in Prague's O2 universum arena from October 4 -6, according to the singer’s website. The shows will be part of Dylan’s Rough & Rowdy Ways tour to promote his latest studio album from 2020. The singer will kick off his European tour in Prague before heading to Germany, France, Luxembourg and the UK.

  • 07/16/2024

    The European Commission has announced that, in light of developments since the start of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union, it plans to boycott informal ministerial meetings and send only senior officials to them instead of commissioners. The traditional visit by EU commissioners to the presidency country has reportedly also been cancelled. The daily Politico says member states are giving Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the cold shoulder for his self-styled peace visits to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, which he didn’t coordinate with other national leaders.

    According to Politico, the boycott already started last week, with only seven ministers out of 27 attending Tuesday's meeting of ministers responsible for the internal market and industry in the Hungarian capital. The EU Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton was notably absent. Czechia was represented by David Müller, senior director of the foreign trade section of the ministry of industry.

  • 07/15/2024

    Czechia supports Serbia in its efforts to join the EU, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said following a meeting with the head of Serbian diplomacy Marko Djuric in Prague on Monday. The two officials discussed bilateral relations, Serbia's progress in EU accession talks and the situation in the Western Balkans. Serbia wants to meet the conditions for EU entry by 2027. The country has had candidate status since March 2012. At the same time, it maintains close cooperation with Russia. While Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has condemned the Russian invasion and expressed support for Ukraine's territorial integrity, he has refused to join anti-Russian sanctions.

  • 07/15/2024

    The Czech House for the Olympic Games in Paris will be inaugurated by snowboard cross champion Eva Adamczyk. The ceremony will take place on 26 July at 4 pm, just before the opening ceremony of the Games. There will also be acrobats and a light show, the Czech Olympic Committee said in a press release on Monday. The sports and cultural programme will be provided by the Pyroterra art group, the AirGym Art Company acrobats, the dance troupe Rapid Deployment Unit and representatives of Sokol Paris. The musical accompaniment will be provided by the brass sextet of the South Bohemian Philharmonic Orchestra.

  • 07/15/2024

    Tuesday should be partly cloudy with scattered showers around the country and day temperatures between 23 and 27 degrees in Bohemia and as high as 32 degrees in Moravia.

  • 07/15/2024

    A joint meeting of the Czech and Ukrainian governments will take place in Prague on Tuesday, the Office of the Government announced on its website. The main topics of the meeting will be defence cooperation, migration, cooperation in the energy sector and Czech involvement in the reconstruction of Ukraine. Bilateral meetings between individual ministers are also scheduled.

    The last joint meeting of the two governments took place in Kyiv in October, 2022. Czechia is one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in the EU.

  • 07/15/2024

    MEP Martin Hlaváček from the ANO party will not be taking up his second mandate in the European Parliament. He made the announcement on the X network on Monday, citing serious personal reasons. Hlaváček, who is one of ANO’s agricultural experts, said he would continue to work with the party. ANO will be part of the Patriots for Europe faction in the European Parliament together with a number of right-wing, nationalist parties from around Europe.

  • 07/15/2024

    The government coalition is divided over the proposed state budget deficit for 2025, Czech Television reported. While Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura is pushing for a deficit of CZK 235 billion, TOP 09 leader Markéta Pekarová Adamová would favour a bolder cut in public finances. to below CZK 200 billion.

    On the other hand, the Mayors and Independents and the Pirate Party argue that any budget cuts must take into account the pressing needs of several key sectors, such as the need to increase spending on education, internal security and housing support. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has expressed support for the projected CZK 235 billion state budget deficit in 2025.

  • 07/15/2024

    The Czech minister of foreign affairs, Jan Lipavský, says he will continue to push for a restriction on the movement of Russian diplomats in the Schengen area. In an interview with iRozhlas.cz published on Monday, he said that after months of lobbying Czechia had managed to formally propose such a move but that some countries were reserved on the matter.

    Mr. Lipavský said there were 3,000 Russian diplomats in Europe and that the country’s agents had used diplomatic cover to carry out heinous acts.

    The Czech foreign policy chief also said that he would submit a new strategy on China to the government in the autumn.

    Author: Ian Willoughby
  • 07/15/2024

    The abolition of an electronic cash register system in January last year meant the loss of a key mechanism for targeting tax evasion, Czechia’s Supreme Audit Office said on Monday. In the case of value added tax, the system, which was connected to a central database, chiefly helped to detect entities that did not register as taxpayers even though they exceeded the legal limit for mandatory registration, the state agency said.

    The electronic record of sales system was introduced in 2016 but was suspended in spring 2020 during the Covid crisis and later became de facto voluntary. It was formally ended at the start of last year.

    Author: Ian Willoughby

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