• Klaus rejects Ukrainian parliament vote of no-confidence in Yanukovych
    12/01/2004

    The Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, has rejected a vote of no-confidence in Ukraine's prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, passed by the country's parliament. Mr Yanukovych came first in Ukraine's presidential elections amid widespread allegations of voting irregularities. Mr Klaus said, however, the no-confidence vote would lead to increased instability in the country. He said he was worried about steps being taken which could lead to a "point of no return" in Ukraine. The Czech president has also called for a re-run of the disputed presidential election.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Cesky Telecom shares rise in value ahead of cabinet sell-off decision
    12/01/2004

    Shares in Cesky Telecom rose by 2 percent on Wednesday, as the cabinet met to decide on the privatisation of the telecommunications company. It is expected to choose between selling the state's stake in Telecom via the capital markets and selling it to a strategic investor.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Hard-line Communist Party of Czechoslovakia to run for parliament for first time
    12/01/2004

    The hard-line Communist Party of Czechoslovakia is planning to stand in general elections for the first time in 2006, leader Miroslav Stepan said on Wednesday. Mr Stepan, the Communist Party chief in Prague before 1989, spent two and a half years in prison in the early 1990s for trying to crush the Velvet Revolution. He said his party were growing in strength and attracting disaffected members of the more mainstream Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, which is the second biggest opposition group in the Czech parliament.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Seventy Beslan children coming to Czech Republic
    12/01/2004

    A group of around 70 children from the Russian town of Beslan was due to arrive in the Czech Republic on Wednesday evening to undergo medical treatment and rehabilitation. A hostage crisis at their school in September ended in the deaths of more than 300 people. The children, accompanied by parents and teachers, as well as psychologists, will be staying in the west Bohemian spa town of Karlovy Vary, where there is a sizable Russian community.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Czech Airlines to open fourth direct route to Slovakia
    12/01/2004

    Czech Airlines is planning to introduce a fourth direct route to Slovakia, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Along with established destinations Bratislava, Kosice and Sliac, CSA is going to fly to the western town of Zilina from March next year.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • OECD tells Czech Republic to speed up pension and health reforms
    11/30/2004

    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has called on the Czech Republic to speed up pension and health care reforms. In a report on the state of the economy published on Tuesday, the OECD warned that the objective of achieving a deficit equal to three percent of GDP by 2008, which is a condition for adopting the euro, would not be reached without further measures. The Czech Republic would like to join the euro-zone sometime at the end of the decade.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Government agrees to reduce public spending
    11/30/2004

    The governing coalition has agreed on a plan to reduce public spending by seventy billion crowns in the years 2006 and 2007. The planned reduction in public spending is in line with the EU convergence programme and failure to adhere to it could result in steep fines and problems with accessing EU solidarity finds. The money should be saved predominantly on social benefits and in the state sector.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Sobotka urges salary freeze for deputies, senators
    11/30/2004

    Finance minister Bohuslav Sobotka has called for an emergency session of Parliament which would freeze the salaries of deputies, senators and ministers in the coming year. The Lower House recently approved a law which postpones a planned increase in the salaries of policemen, firemen and other emergency services but which at the same time raises the salaries of deputies, senators, cabinet ministers and state attorneys as of January 1st of 2005. Coming at a time of cuts in public spending, the news evoked plenty of criticism. Minister Sobotka said that with goodwill from both houses of Parliament there was still time to reverse this decision.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • Sobotka urges decision on Telecom's privatization
    11/30/2004

    Finance Minister Sobotka has called for a decision on the privatization of telecommunications operator Cesky Telecom to be made this Wednesday. In an interview for the CTK news agency, minister Sobotka said a decision should be made without further loss of time on whether the states' 51 percent stake in Cesky Telecom would be sold directly to a sole investor or through the capital market. If it were through the capital market, the privatization of Telecom could begin before the end of the year. The Cabinet is split on how best to proceed. Several ministers, including Sobotka, favour a flotation on the capital markets since it would bring immediate funds to the cash-strapped government. Several previous attempts to sell the government's stake in Telecom failed.
    Author: Daniela Lazarová

  • A Prague court has ordered the Interior Ministry to remove ice hockey association head Vratislav Kulhanek's name from list of StB agents and collaborators.
    11/29/2004

    A Prague municipal court has ordered the Interior Ministry to remove another name from its official list of former communist-era secret police agents. On Monday a judge ruled that there was no proof that Skoda Auto supervisory head Vratislav Kulhanek -- who also serves as the chairman of the Czech Ice Hockey Association -- had knowingly worked for the StB. An official list of StB agents and collaborators was published on the Interior Ministry's Internet site last spring.
    Author: Brian Kenety

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