• 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

  • Klaus honours Constitutional Court judges
    07/14/2003

    Czech President Vaclav Klaus has thanked Constitutional Court judges for their work at a farewell ceremony at Prague Castle on Monday. On July 15, eight of the fifteen judges at the court retire after a ten year term. While President Klaus has already nominated suitable candidates to the constitutional court, their appointment is yet to be approved by the Senate, which is expected to meet on Wednesday.
    Author: Dita Asiedu

  • Foreign Minister Svoboda meets Sharon in Jerusalem
    07/13/2003

    The Czech foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, has held talks in Jerusalem with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and other senior Israeli officials. Mr Svoboda said on Sunday the two countries had longstanding good relations. The foreign minister did not meet representatives of the Palestinian Authority; he is planning to visit the territory in August.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Awards ceremony closes Karlovy Vary festival
    07/13/2003

    The 38th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival closed with an awards ceremony on Saturday night at which the Italian film Facing Window took the main Crystal Globe award for best film. The American actor Morgan Freeman was given an award for services to world cinema.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Svoboda reopens Czech embassy, meets civil administrator on visit to Baghdad
    07/12/2003

    The foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda, has reopened the Czech embassy in Baghdad. Mr Svoboda also held talks with the American civil administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, who praised the Czech government for the part it is playing in the reconstruction of the country. Mr Svoboda was also due to visit Basra on Saturday and to meet members of a Czech military field hospital based in the city. On Sunday the foreign minister is moving on to Israel, where he will meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other senior Israeli officials.

    Meanwhile the Czech Catholic Charity Association has sent a tonne and a half of medicines to Iraq. The medicines, mainly antibiotics and vitamins for children, were flown to Basra on Friday night in a Defence Ministry plane.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Another death by self-immolation
    07/12/2003

    A 21-year-old man burned himself to death in the north Moravian town of Frydek-Mistek on Friday evening. The man, said to have been a drug addict, doused himself in flammable liquid and set it alight. He died before doctors managed to reach the scene. It was the 17th case of suicide, or attempted suicide, by burning in the Czech Republic since the beginning of March.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Several injured as train derailed by truck in Orlicke Mountains
    07/12/2003

    More than a dozen people were injured when a local passenger train collided with a truck at Rokytnice in the Orlicke Mountains, east Bohemia on Saturday. The truck driver was flown to hospital in Hradec Kralove with serious head injuries. The train was derailed in the accident, which occurred at an unmarked crossing between two towns in the mountains.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

  • Pilot of ultra-light dies in crash, daughter escapes with light injuries
    07/12/2003

    The pilot of an ultra-light plane died in a crash near the north-west Bohemian town of Louny on Friday. The man's daughter had been a passenger in the plane and escaped with light injuries. The cause of the crash is now being investigated.
    Author: Ian Willoughby

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