News

The Lower House on Tuesday voted that 17 of its members who have been observers to the European Parliament since last year will remain as temporary deputies until the June elections to the European Parliament. The upper house of parliament, the Senate, confirmed its seven observers last week. All 24 temporary deputies will represent the Czech Republic in the European Parliament from May 1st, when the Czech Republic joins the EU, to July 19th, when the newly elected deputies will be ready to take up their mandates.

The heads of four heavily indebted hospitals in Moravia and Silesia have been sacked by local government authorities. The accumulated losses of these hospitals reached 318 million crowns last year, up from 142 million in 2002. Their replacements will have to introduce effective cost-cutting measures which would enable the hospitals to survive and repay their debts.

The Neo-Nazi organisation National Resistance has published a list of its biggest enemies, the country's main commercial station TV Nova reported on Monday. Some fifty personalities, including members of the Roma community, the Communist Party, as well as anarchists, have been black listed on the organisation's web site. Some of the people on the list have said they feared for their safety as they know of cases where members of the National Resistance have brutally attacked people they did not like. According to TV Nova, the Czech police have been monitoring extreme-right internet sites for some time now.

A record 190 delegates attended the 13th annual Czech-German conference of politicians, journalists and scientists, which came to an end in the town of Jihlava on Sunday. The three-day event, organised by the Bernard Bolzano Foundation, aims at promoting discussion and finding solutions to various problem areas causing friction in Czech-German relations. Conference participants shared the view that, concerning the period following WWII, Czechs and Germans will most likely never come to an agreement. However, according to Czech historian Jan Kren, besides agreeing to disagree, both sides need to acknowledge each other and be prepared to listen to the other's arguments.