News

Prior to his departure for the Middle East on Sunday, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg indicated that he had a plan on how the EU could help broker an eventual ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but declined to reveal details beyond the fact that the EU had a humanitarian role to play. The minister discussed the current conflict on public broadcaster Czech TV. He said that although some might question Israel’s reaction, the blame for the conflict lay firmly with Hamas, which he called a terrorist organisation. Mr Schwarzenberg also indicated, in his view, that Israel was aware of its worsening position on the international scene each day that operations - with additional wounded and dead - continued. During the Middle East mission, Mr Schwarzenberg will stop in Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

Importer RWE Transgas has reported a five percent drop in natural gas supplies to the Czech Republic from Russia. According to the firm, the drop is related to an ongoing dispute between Russia and Ukraine. A spokesman called the development the “first signal of the Russia-Ukraine crisis in the Czech Republic”, adding there would be no effect on Czech customers thanks to reserves and alternative supplies from Norway. Russia cut off shipments to Ukraine on January 1 in a dispute over prices and on Saturday energy giant Gazprom charged that Ukraine was illegally siphoning off supplies intended for EU countries. Others who have seen a drop in supplies include Hungary and Poland.

For the first time Czech betting firms on Monday will launch online internet gambling: five of the largest gambling firms in the Czech Republic have been allowed by the Finance Ministry to operate the service. Gamblers who wish to bet on-line will first have to register in person at bricks and mortar betting shops. The service is expected to raise the amount spent on betting in the country, currently at around 12 billion crowns per year (the equivalent of around 622 million US dollars).

The Czech presidency of the European Union has called for the quick resumption of full deliveries of Russian natural gas supplies to EU member states, after learning on Friday that deliveries from Russia through Ukraine to countries like Hungary and Poland had seen a considerable decrease. Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, on behalf of the Czech EU presidency, stressed that the EU needed to avoid similar such developments in the future. In its dispute with Ukraine, Russian energy giant Gazprom cut off supplies to the country this week and accused Ukraine on Friday of illegally using gas designated for the EU. The European Union is pushing for an urgent resolution to the dispute, setting an extraordinary meeting of EU representatives in Brussels on Monday.