• Sports plane violates no-fly zone at Temelin
    07/23/2003

    A small Katana sports plane with a single pilot violated the no-fly zone around the Temelin nuclear power plant on Wednesday while flying en route from the town of Most to Hosin. The incident sparked the immediate take-off of an L-39 fighter jet from a nearby army base, however, the jet did not have to intervene. The sports plane pilot had steered his craft out of the no-fly zone by that time. The Aviation Bureau is looking into the causes behind the incident.
    Author: Jan Velinger

  • President Klaus admitted to hospital with tonsillitis, pains in joints
    07/22/2003

    President Vaclav Klaus has been admitted to hospital in Prague. Mr Klaus, who is 62, had been receiving treatment at home for tonsillitis, but was brought to the city's General Teaching Hospital on Tuesday morning when he said pains in his joints were getting worse. A spokesman said the president would undergo a comprehensive check-up. Mr Klaus has cancelled his schedule for the rest of this week, meaning the appointment of new judges to the Constitutional Court and other official duties have had to be postponed.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Government to decide when to adopt single European currency in the autumn
    07/21/2003

    The Czech government expects to decide when to join the Euro in the autumn of this year, after hearing a Central Bank recommendation on what steps to take in the run-up to membership in the currency zone. The timing of euro entry is important for the Czech Republic's budget and monetary policies and for investors who have bet billions on rising asset prices and falling interest rates ahead of the country's adoption of the single currency. Out of all central European candidate countries for EU membership, the Czech Republic has been most hesitant on setting a definite date. Hungary and Slovakia target 2008, while Poland hopes to adopt the euro by the beginning of 2009 at the latest. Czech Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, has said 2010 was a realistic date, adding that a decision would be based on a joint proposal prepared by the Czech Central Bank and the ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade. The Czech Central Bank (CNB) has recommended the Czech Republic stay out of the EU's exchange rate mechanism for some time after EU entry next May, warning of the risks involved in linking the freely floating crown too closely to the euro.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Cabinet rejects a bill against abortions
    07/21/2003

    Also during its session on Monday, the government rejected a bill against abortions that was submitted by nine opposition deputies. Under the bill, doctors who perform abortions can face up to five years in prison and can furthermore loose their medical licence. Any other person who advises or helps a woman undergo an abortion can also face up to a year in prison, while the woman herself will not be punished. Abortions are only granted in exceptional cases such as when they can save a woman's life, or when the pregnancy was a result of rape. The authors of the bill have said they did not expect it to be approved by the cabinet, nor by parliament, but hoped it would result in further discussion on the controversial issue. Statistics show that since the fall of Communism in 1989, the number of abortions has been decreasing significantly. While in 1990, some 100,000 were carried out, only a little under double that number were performed in the past five years.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Austria extends deadline for compensation claims
    07/21/2003

    All victims of Nazism who were slave or forced labourers on Austrian territory during WWII have until the end of the year, instead of September 27, to ask to be compensated, the Austrian embassy in Prague said on Monday. In total, the Austrian government expects to pay out some 15.6 billion Czech crowns to all former slave labourers. Out of this sum, 1.3 billion Czech crowns have been reserved for Czech victims. Any amount of the reserved money that will not be paid out will be used for various health and social projects, allowing Czech former forced or slave labourers to undergo important medical treatment in Austria, for example.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Five EU candidates, Austria agree on regional cooperation
    07/19/2003

    The interior ministers of five EU candidate countries and Austria meeting at the "Salzburg Forum 2003" agreed on Saturday on concerted strategy in pushing for their interests after EU enlargement. The interior ministers of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia agreed on the need for cooperation in the sphere of security. In a joint statement the ministers agreed on the importance of a harmonised European asylum and migration system, an integrated administration of external borders as well coordinated struggle against terrorism and organised crime.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Czech military policeman sustains slight injury in Iraq
    07/19/2003

    A Czech military policeman has been slightly injured in the Iraqi city of Basra. He sustained the injury trying to restrain an Iraqi suspect attempting to escape from a boat in Basra harbour, a spokesman for the Czech military field hospital based in the city said on Friday.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • President Klaus returns VAT bill to Chamber of Deputies for further debate
    07/18/2003

    President Vaclav Klaus has vetoed a proposed increase in value added tax. The tax increase would see VAT on some products and services rise from 5 percent to 22 percent and is intended to bring an extra 11 billion crowns into the state coffers. A spokesman for Mr Klaus said on Friday that the president was unhappy the Senate had not ruled on the proposed changes. The bill now returns to the Chamber of Deputies for further debate.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Klaus, Klestil discuss cooperation, EU
    07/17/2003

    President Vaclav Klaus and his Austrian counterpart Thomas Klestil, who arrived on a one-day visit to the Czech Republic on Thursday, have discussed Czech-Austrian relations and cooperation within the EU. The two presidents also touched upon controversial questions of Czech-Austrian relations. However, according to President Klaus they did not mention the so-called Benes decrees in their conversation and Mr Klaus himself is not preparing any specific gestures, demanded by some Austrian politicians in connection with the Benes decrees, which sanctioned the deportation of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. President Klestil said that Austrian leaders were pleased at the progress in the so-called Melk process, which was designed to assure expert security for the Temelin nuclear power plant. The power station is located close to the Czech-Austrian border and has been the cause of many protests in the nuclear-free Austria.
    Author: Pavla Horáková

  • Czech president in France
    07/15/2003

    Czech President Vaclav Klaus has begun a two-day visit in France. He met with his French counterpart Jacques Chirac in Paris on Tuesday, expressing confidence the visit would allow for serious discussion on the future role of the Czech Republic in the European Union. Shortly preceding his visit, however, Mr Klaus gave a somewhat stormy interview to the French daily Le Figaro, expressing scepticism towards the current "Federalist" direction of European integration. In the interview Mr Klaus called the European constitution - put forward in draft form last month by the Convention on the Future of the EU - "unnecessary". He also repeated a statement made last month when Czechs voted on EU accession, that there was real danger that the Czech Republic would dissolve in the European Union. In his words: "like a lump of sugar in a cup of coffee".
    Author: Jan Velinger

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