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Commemorative ceremonies took place across the Czech Republic on Sunday to mark the 13th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution which ended four decades of communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia. Top officials and members of the public laid flower and lighted candles on Narodni Trida, the Prague street where the communist police brutally cracked down on a peaceful student demonstration, setting in motion events which toppled the communist regime. November 17th, marked as "freedom and democracy day" in the Czech Republic is also linked to student protests against the Nazi and communist regimes in earlier years.

Belarus has announced its intention to boycott the NATO summit in Prague. Angered by the Czech government's decision to deny President Lukashenko an entry visa to the Czech Republic, the Belarus Foreign Ministry said that no one would represent Belarus at the Council of Euro-Atlantic Partnership Conference due to be held on the second day of the summit. A spokesman for the Belarus Foreign Ministry said Prague had set "a dangerous precedent which questioned the unity of the Euro-Atlantic Alliance".

Belarus has recalled its ambassador from Prague in connection with the Czech government's refusal to issue President Lukashenko an entry visa to the Czech Republic where he planned to attend the upcoming NATO summit. The Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the ambassador had been recalled "for consultations". The Czech Foreign Ministry on Friday announced its decision to reject President Lukashenko's visa request on the grounds that his government violates human rights. A foreign ministry statement said that the rest of the Belarussian delegation had been issued visas out of "recognition and respect for the Belarussian community whose European orientation is well known". Over the past week President Lukashenko made several public threats, warning the Czech Republic that a rejection of his visa request would irrevocably damage bilateral relations and that Belarus would "open its borders allowing illegal immigrants and drugs to flood Europe".

Ten countries poised for EU membership have set out a common demand for entry terms which would not leave them worse off when they join the union in 2004. The EU candidates fear that the slow phase-in of aid proposed in Brussels' 40 billion euro enlargement budget combined with tough competition on EU markets could result in serious economic problems, leaving them worse off than prior to their admission to the EU. The common demand, drafted at a meeting in Warsaw, comes ahead of a final agreement on farm aid and infrastructure funding which is to be reached at the EU's Copenhagen summit in December.