• 10/09/2024

    After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's speech in the European Parliament (EP) on Wednesday, some Czech MEPs again criticised his government's unwillingness to help Ukraine, as did European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the plenary session today. According to Klára Dostálová (ANO), the EP meeting turned into a farce instead of a substantive discussion on the priorities of the presidency.

    During his speech, Orbán said that Hungary wants to achieve peace and prosperity in Europe and that the EU must change if it wants to be competitive. The Hungarian prime minister also criticised the EU's asylum system, which he said was not working, and said illegal migration was leading to more anti-Semitism, homophobia and increased violence against women. Hungary holds the EU presidency from 1 July to the end of December.

  • 10/09/2024

    Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala stated that the Czech Republic and Poland are close allies with aligned views on many issues, following the joint meeting of their governments in Prague today. Their agenda focused on cross-border cooperation, energy security, nuclear energy, transport infrastructure, migration, and flood protection. The ministers also discussed support for Ukraine and Poland’s upcoming EU presidency.

  • 10/09/2024

    This September’s floods have been estimated to have caused 359 million crowns of damage in the South Bohemian region, according to regional governor’s office. The floods caused damage to dozens of municipalities, and the final damage assessment may yet rise. A number of streams in the region reached their highest flood levels, and flooding hit homes in Benešov nad Černou and Český Krumlov, among other places. Shortly after the floods, the Region decided to release approximately 30 million crowns for the affected municipalities. Across the whole country, the Moravian-Silesian and Olomouc regions were the worst affected by the floods, where the damage is in the billions of crowns.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 10/09/2024

    President Petr Pavel has requested that some of his presidential funds for representation purposes be transferred to his wife, Eva Pavlová, to assist her in her services as First Lady, according to a post on the social network X. The president stated that it is “unfair” that his wife must pay for expenses occurred as part of official visits. The president emphasized that he had never asked for an increase in financial resources. The request comes at a time of increased scrutiny of the salaries of public officials and has stirred some controversy.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 10/08/2024

    Detectives in Prague have arrested a Czech citizen who is one of the largest online distributors of child pornography in the world. The individual in question was wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the EU police agency Europol. He is currently in custody and faces up to eight years in prison if convicted for the sexual abuse of children and the distribution of child pornography on the so-called ‘dark web’. According to police spokeswoman Kristýna Zelinková, the FBI had been recording information about the elderly man and his activities for almost ten years, and he was arrested as part of an international organisation coordinated by Europol.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 10/08/2024

    The South Korean company KHNP, which won the tender for the construction of two new reactors at the Dukovany nuclear power plant, has rejected claims by its unsuccessful French rival EDF that it received unfair subsidy support from its government that helped it win the tender. EDF has said the European Commission should examine whether the Korean firm's bid in the Dukovany tender "complied with the fundamental principles, laws and regulations of European law". As Euractive reported, EDF filed the complaint under the European regulation on foreign subsidies.

    KHNP has denied getting any aid from its government. "KHNP has not received any subsidies from the South Korean government in connection with the bid for the construction of new nuclear units in the Czech Republic that could influence the results of the tender, nor has it received any promises of such subsidies," KHNP spokesman Kryštof Navrátil told Czech Radio on Tuesday.

  • 10/08/2024

    Wednesday should be partly cloudy to overcast, with daytime highs of 16 and 20 degrees Celsius.

  • 10/08/2024

    Tomio Okamura, the leader of the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD), has been fined for a statement made at the beginning of May in the Czech Chamber of Deputies, in which he compared Deputy Speaker Jan Bartošek to a modern-day Hitler. Okamura was fined 20,000 crowns by the parliamentary Mandate and Immunity Committee, which recognised his remark about Bartošek’s morals and manner of speaking as a disciplinary offence. The committee has the power either to impose a monetary penalty or demand an apology. Pavel Staněk, the vice-chairperson of the committee, said “we found it entirely more rational to impose a fine than an almost possibly unenforceable apology”. Okamura has the right to appeal the verdict.

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 10/08/2024

    Czechia is among seventeen countries that have submitted a ‘non-paper’ to the European Commission in Brussels, calling for a faster and more efficient return of migrants, whose asylum requests have been rejected, to their country of origin. The non-paper, which is currently only intended to be discussed by Commission officials, was put together by Austria and the Netherlands, and supported by EU member states including Germany, France and Sweden, as well as the non-EU countries of Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein. The document proposes to strengthen the consequences for those asylum seekers who have been ordered to return to their home country but have not yet departed, and to make the process quicker and more efficient.

    This document comes ahead of a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg, and forms part of the new Dutch government’s tougher stance on immigration. The request would see individual European governments empowered to carry out deportation from Europe "with full respect for fundamental rights".

    Author: Danny Bate
  • 10/08/2024

    Unemployment in Czechia rose to 3.9 percent this September, which was 0.1 percentage point higher than in the previous two months, according to data published by the Czech Labour Office.  The primary reason for the increase was the arrival of approximately 3,000 recent school graduates on the labour market. There were 290,905 people without work at the end of September, 4585 more than in the previous month. But the number of vacancies also increased; compared to August, it rose to 264,654, an increase of 1,400. In September last year, unemployment was lower, at 3.6 percent. According to analysts, the increase in unemployment indicates the weak performance of the Czech economy.

    Author: Danny Bate

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