• The Czech National Bank posted a 54bn crown loss last year, due to strong crown, decline in value of foreign reserves
    01/31/2005

    The Czech National Bank (CNB) announced on Monday that it posted a record loss of nearly 54 billion crowns in 2004 - nearly three times the loss of the previous year - due to the decline in the value of the central bank's foreign reverses, by over one-third. The reason for the loss is that the Czech currency has continued to firm in recent years not only against the weakening US dollar but also against the common European currency, the euro.
    Author: Brian Kenety

  • Czech Army may stay in Iraq beyond end of this year, says minister
    01/30/2005

    Czech military police may stay in Iraq longer than previously expected, the foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, said on Sunday. The Czech parliament recently voted to extend the mission of the unit until the end of this year. But Mr Svoboda said they would remain in the country as long as the Iraqi government considered their presence "useful and beneficial". Around 100 Czech soldiers are training local police officers in the south of the country.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czech-based Iraqis travel to Berlin to take part in elections
    01/30/2005

    Meanwhile, around 70 Iraqis based in the Czech Republic voted in Iraq's elections in Berlin on Saturday. The Czech NGO People in Need ferried two busloads of Iraqi exiles to polling stations in the German capital. Around 300 Iraqis live in the Czech Republic, and the Foreign Ministry said some of them were likely to have made their own way to Berlin.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Prime Minister Gross to sue daily over reporting of personal finances
    01/30/2005

    The prime minister, Stanislav Gross, says he plans to sue the newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes for its reporting of his personal finances; the daily said Mr Gross had not officially earned enough to cover the cost of his luxury flat in Prague. The prime minister on Saturday presented tax documents which he said proved he had earned more than the price of the property. But he refused to discuss a loan he says he took from his uncle, who says he borrowed the money from other relatives outside the Czech Republic.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Social Democrats agree "action plan" at party conference
    01/30/2005

    Mr Gross's party, the Social Democrats, have agreed what they call an "action plan" to try to win voter support. At a conference in Prague, delegates voted to cut taxes for people on middle and low incomes, though the details have not yet been worked out. The party will maintain its policies of free third level education and health care.

    The Social Democrats also presented a new programme called "English for All" to try and improve Czechs' skills in the language. Stanislav Gross, who himself does not speak English, said the plan envisaged higher pay for English teachers.

    The party now has to present its policy proposals to the other two parties in the governing coalition.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • International group arrested in Hradec Kralove over internet child pornography
    01/30/2005

    Four people including a Briton and a German have been detained in Hradec Kralove on suspicion of distributing child pornography via the internet. The Briton and one Czech citizen have been remanded in custody, said a Czech prosecutor. She said British and German police had helped in detecting the group, which she described as highly dangerous.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Survey: Czech Republic likely to have lowest turnout for EU constitution referendum
    01/29/2005

    The Czech Republic is likely to have the lowest turnout of any European Union state holding a referendum on the EU constitution, according to research by the Eurobarometer polling agency. Only 19 percent of Czechs surveyed said they would vote. While a quarter of Czechs said they had never heard of the EU constitution, the number who had was - at 67 percent - higher than the average in the nine states due to hold referendums.

    Prime Minister Stanislav Gross wants to hold the vote on the same day as the next general elections in 2006. But the opposition Civic Democrats are threatening to try to block the referendum if it is not held by the end of this year.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Gross calls on Social Democrats to abandon utopian idea of social state
    01/29/2005

    The chairman of the Social Democrats, Stanislav Gross, has urged the party to abandon their utopian and populist attitude to the "social state". He told 500 delegates at a conference in Prague the Social Democrats should join the mainstream of European social democracy and not stick dogmatically to what he called "old visions". Meanwhile, members of the party close to the labour minister, Zdenek Skromach, are in favour of maintaining the Social Democrats' traditional socialist values. Mr Skromach will face Mr Gross in a vote for the party leadership in March.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Disgraced former head of Office of Government working for Interior Ministry
    01/29/2005

    The former head of the Office of the Government, Pavel Pribyl, is once again working for the Interior Ministry, according to press reports Saturday. Mr Pribyl was forced to resign last year when it emerged that he had led a riot police unit which attacked anti-communist demonstrators in early 1989. A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry said Mr Pribyl had been employed in an external capacity to help improve police standards.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Rent on rent-regulated apartments to rise up to eight percent a year
    01/29/2005

    Rent on rent-regulated apartments will rise by a maximum of eight percent a year for the next five or six years, according to the local development minister, Jiri Paroubek. The increases will affect one fifth of flats in the Czech Republic; like free-market rents they will vary in different parts of the country. Mr Paroubek said deregulating rents in one go was impossible because it would threaten social cohesion.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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