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The company eMoneyServices on Monday issued Prague City Hall a proposal for payments owed for its services running the Opencard transit pass system in the years 2014 and 2015. City Hall is ready to negotiate but is also preparing its own version, which should be passed by councilors next week, Mayor Adriana Krnáčová said. The proposal only covers some outstanding debts, not an additional 170 million crowns being contested in court. The mayor said that the City of Prague wants to improve relations with EMS, comparing the situation to a divorce. She made clear that matters needed to be resolved before new professional commitments could be made. She declined to say whether Prague could enter a new agreement with EMS.

Three men originally convicted to between 16 and 21 years in prison for their roles in the Czech Republic’s “methanol affair” were released last week pending a re-trial. The High Court in Olomouc allowed the release after their case was returned to the regional court in Zlín. Previously, they had been remanded in custody for fear they could try and flee from justice but the High Court found that circumstances have since changed. The three - Viktor Koláček, Martin Jirout and Libor Vanderka - are accused of having mixed and helped distribute deadly batches of bootleg liquor. In the methanol affair, almost 50 people died from drinking the laced alcohol. The first poisonings appeared in September 2012, leading the goverment to temporarily introduce partial prohibition. In February of this year, a court handed the two main perpetrators in the affair life sentences.

Emissions of greenhouse gases decreased by 33 percent in the Czech Republic from 1990 - 2012 as the result of industry upgrades and is fulfilling Kyoto Protocol commitments, experts maintain. Climatologist Radim Tolasz told The Czech News Agency that almost all of the whole former eastern Bloc has met commitments without difficulty thanks to the restructuring of industries after the fall of communist regimes. But critics point out the environment in the country is still burdened by a prevalent dependence on fossil fuels and that excessive road traffic had also contributed strongly as an air pollutant. Vratislav Vozńik, the spokesman for the NGO Arnika criticised measures to save energy as inefficient and called the pace of decreasing greenhouse gases "slow". More than 80 percent of the gases come from energy, transport and industry, the rest from wastes and agriculture. The Environment Ministry is now preparing two new strategic documents aimed to further cut emissions and adapt the country to climate change. It is to submit them to the government in the latter half of the year.

Health Minister Svatopluk Němeček has said around 30 new community mental health clinics should be created in the Czech Republic over the next two years at the cost of around 10 million crowns each, working with an operational budget of around 450 million crowns annually. The minister commented the situation in the health sector on public broadcaster Czech TV. Each of the centres, he said, would employ 20 staff members, including a full-time and part-time psychiatrist, psychologist, medical and social workers. The project, at least in the beginning, will be financed from European funds. Once community centres are up and running, the minister said, the transformation of large psychiatric hospitals could begin. He stressed that it was of utmost importance, as a result of changes, that no patient in need of treatment ended up on the street.