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10/16/2009
In related news, the head of the president’s office Jiří Weigl made clear that new ratification of the Lisbon treaty by all EU states will not be necessary to meet President Václav Klaus’s conditions. Mr Weigl suggested on Friday that the country could receive guarantees similar to those given to Ireland ahead of the second Irish referendum. The Czech government has indicated a willingness to negotiate Mr Klaus’s demands with other EU members, but had sought guarantees the president would come forward with no further hurdles to the treaty. A number of EU leaders have expressed concern that the Czech president is purposely delaying ratification to allow for the British Conservative Party to call a referendum on the Lisbon treaty in 2010.
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10/16/2009
The Czech news agency ČTK has reported that US Vice-President Joe Biden will spend one night in the Czech Republic next week, arriving in Prague with Air Force Two on Thursday. Talks with the Czech prime minister as well as president and other officials will take place on Friday. The news site reported that the focus of the trip will be to re-emphasise the importance of Central Europe for the US, after the latter scrapped plans for a US radar base on Czech soil and interceptor missiles in Poland. Other topics on the agenda could include US interest in providing fuel for the Czech nuclear power plant, Temelín, as well as a possible deal on fighter jets for the Czech military.
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10/16/2009
Police in Ostrava have charged two men in connection with an alleged child pornography network broken up by police. Earlier this week, on Wednesday, teams moved in in areas in the early hours, detaining 160 suspects. Many have reportedly already confessed. The move by police, which included home searches and the confiscation of hundreds of computers, is the one of the biggest such busts ever in the Czech Republic. The two charged in Ostrava are a businessman and a public servant.
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10/16/2009
A new bronze statue of Albrecht of Wallenstein, a 17th century Czech nobleman, politician and army commander, was unveiled in the Wallenstein Palace on Friday to mark the 375th anniversary of nobleman’s death. Senate chairman Přemysl Sobotka and members of the Wallenstein noble family were among the guests present at the unveiling ceremony. The idea of erecting a statue of Wallenstein on the premises of the Senate was prompted by the huge success of an exhibition on Wallenstein in the Czech capital earlier.
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10/16/2009
The controversial German hard rock group Rammstein have added a second Czech date to their current tour, the city of Ostrava in the east of the country, in March of next year. Organisers announced the news on Friday, saying it was another opportunity for fans to see the German band. An earlier concert in Prague in November has been sold-out for months.
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10/16/2009
Despite failing to qualify for the football World Cup in South Africa next year, the Czech Republic has moved up three spots in the FIFA world rankings. The national squad moved from 18th to 15th place, settling one behind Cameroon and one ahead of Greece. The list is topped by Brazil.
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10/15/2009
The first major snowfall of the winter has begun forcefully with an abrupt blizzard across the country, wreaking havoc for transport and power networks, particularly in the north and east. More than half a metre of snow fell in some mountainous regions between Wednesday and Thursday, and hurricane-level winds of 140 km/h were reported in the northern Krkonoš Mts, where authorities have issued an avalanche warning. The energy company ČEZ upped the number of homes without power from 30,000 to 70,000 in the course of Thursday due to felled power lines and declared calamities in eight regions. A state of emergency was declared in the Moravian areas of Vsetín and Jeseník, where a heat plant supplying thousands of homes was down due to the blackouts. Fallen trees have also closed roads throughout the country and trains are delayed in places by up to two hours.
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10/15/2009
Former president Václav Havel on Thursday came out very strongly against his successor Václav Klaus for the latter’s obstruction of the Lisbon Treaty ratification process. Speaking at a press conference for the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, Mr Havel called the president’s attitude irresponsible and dangerous, adding that his failure to understand the constitution was damaging to the country and its reputation. Mr Klaus fairly stunned pundits last week by announcing for the first time that his endorsement would depend upon an exemption from a part of the treaty. With the Czech Parliament having passed the treaty earlier this year, President Klaus himself has become the sole obstacle to final ratification of the EU-wide reform treaty, which requires the endorsement of all 27 member states in order to take effect. The treaty is currently the subject of a complaint submitted to the Constitutional Court by a group of the president’s allies; President Klaus maintains that his endorsement is impossible so long as that review is underway.
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10/15/2009
The Czech interim government has said it considers the EU’s Lisbon treaty wholly compatible with the Czech constitution. In his statement on the matter for the Constitutional Court, Prime Minister Jan Fischer said that the cabinet also considers the complaint itself to be formally inadmissible, as it asks the court to exceed its own authority, for example by reviewing the guarantees allowed for Ireland in order to spur ratification in that country. For his part, Mr Klaus on Thursday encouraged the public to read the complaint, and said that he would soon release his own statement on it.
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10/15/2009
Prime Minister Fischer also said his cabinet was working with the president to discuss the treaty exemption that Mr Klaus has stipulated. Mr Fischer said that the desired guarantees would have to be worded very precisely, and that a team had been put together to formulate them. He also emphasized that the president was not the sole partner to the discussion, but rather all 27 members of the EU, who will have to reach an agreement on the matter at their October meeting.
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