News

Czech tennis player beat Russia’s Marat Safin at the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday 3:6, 6:4 and 6:4, and advanced into the tournament’s third round. The Russian player then refused to shake hands with the Czech, arguing Berdych feigned injury during the game.

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer met with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on Tuesday afternoon. The talks were supposed to focus on the choice and responsibilities of the next Czech EU Commissioner. But they were overshadowed by President Václav Klaus’ last minute objections to the EU’s Lisbon treaty. President Klaus has demanded a firm guarantee that the treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights could not be used by Germans expelled from former Czechoslovakia after WWII to reclaim property. Mr Barroso warned that Czech interests would not be served by further delaying ratification of the treaty if its constitutional court had no problems with it.

The Czech government on Monday agreed to present President Klaus’ demands at a summit of EU leaders at the end of the month, but only as long as these are his last demands. The Lisbon treaty should take effect at the start of 2010 but first has to be ratified by all 27 EU states. The Czech Republic is the last in line.

Staying with Lisbon, the Czech Constitution Court announced that it will hold a public hearing into the complaint against the treaty lodged by a group of senators. The hearing will take place on October 27. This means it is likely that a decision on the complaint could come the same day or at least soon afterwards. A court spokesman said that the public hearing will be held regardless of whether the senators make a further submission aimed at widening their existing complaint. Czech media reported on Tuesday that the mostly right-leaning senators will submit further material aimed at broadening their existing complaint by the end of this week.

The Czech Republic and Austria signed an agreement on Tuesday over how their different types of forestry management could counter the spread of the timber-damaging bark beetle. The two sides have literally been at loggerheads with the Austrians criticising the Czechs for their policy of leaving some parts of forest along the border to rot and rejuvenate naturally. They say this has promoted the beetle’s spread. Under the agreement signed by Czech environment minister Ladislav Miko and his Austrian counterpart, Nikolaus Berlakovich, the two sides agreed to monitor the state of the forest and spread of the beetle on both sides of the border. A 200-metre wide protection area will also be introduced at certain points along the border where rotten trees will be removed and natural enemies of the beetle encouraged. In addition, the Austrians pledged not to leave bald patches of forest which result in damage to Czech trees during storms.