News

A 12-year-old boy, one of six people struck by a falling tree in the eastern town of Zlín on Thursday, has died in hospital, a spokesman for the regional emergency unit has said. The boy was one of two youngsters seriously injured when they were hit by the 20-metre tall falling tree. Four adults remain in hospital with less serious injuries. Officials say there were no clear signs of danger prior to the accident: rotted tree roots are thought to have led to the fall. The incident is being investigated.

At a meeting chaired by the Czech EU presidency on Wednesday, European leaders called on Israel to allow humanitarian aid to flow to the Gaza Strip immediately. Speaking after the meeting, attended among others by Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said that the EU had called on Israel to open border crossings with Gaza to allow international humanitarian organizations to do their work. EU leaders also discussed ways of preventing arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. A ceasefire in the region was declared by both sides last weekend following nearly three weeks of fighting.

Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra said that when and how the Czech Republic ratifies the Lisbon Treaty is entirely up to Czechs to decide. Mr Vondra told MEPs that his government would not respond to European pressure by speeding up the process. The Czech Republic is the last country in Europe still to vote on the EU reform document. Following a ruling by the Constitutional Court in Brno last November, Czech MPs voted to postpone a decision on the treaty until February 2009. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has spoken out in favour of the Lisbon Treaty, while Czech president Václav Klaus is known to be a fierce opponent of the reform document.

Labour and social affairs ministers from around the European Union are convening in Luhačovice, Southern Moravia, on Thursday for an informal two-day meeting held by the Czech government as part of the country’s EU presidency. The talks follow last week’s meetings of European justice and interior ministers in Prague. Top of the agenda at this week’s talks are quotas for foreign workers which are still implemented in some EU countries. Germany, Austria, Belgium and Denmark still have limits on the number of workers they will accept from the EU’s newer member states; quotas which the Czech EU presidency would like to see scrapped.