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10/07/2009
The European Commission has begun an investigation into the budget deficit in the Czech Republic and eight other EU states whose deficits have breeched the stipulated boundary of 3% of GDP. The Finance Ministry on Wednesday said the investigation was ‘nothing surprising,’ and has already proposed measures expected to reduce the deficit by roughly 2% of GDP. Originally anticipating a budget deficit of 3.9% for this year, the ministry is in fact faced with 5.5%, which threatens to climb to more than 7% for 2010 should Parliament fail to pass its budget proposal for next year. The Czech Republic could face fines if its public finances are not rectified.
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10/07/2009
Meanwhile MPs on the Parliamentary Budget Committee have had their first discussion of the Finance Ministry’s proposed budget for next year and recommended the plan to Parliament. The proposal now awaits a first reading in the lower house, which is scheduled for October 21. The Ministry’s budget proposal foresees a 163-billion-crown deficit – a reduction from earlier estimates made possible by an austerity package approved by Parliament last month.
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10/07/2009
The level of people’s dissatisfaction with the direction their country is going in has reached a record low, a poll indicated on Wednesday. Such is the opinion of 46% of Czechs according to the STEM research agency, which also stated that people were much more concerned with the economic crisis than with the current constitutional crisis that nixed hopes of early elections. STEM reported that in recent years there have been three relatively equal groups of people who were either satisfied, dissatisfied, or thought things were “going nowhere.” This year however, the agency’s research suggests that contentment has dropped fairly swiftly in the course of the year, from 23% in May to 14% in September, marking the lowest point for that question since 1993.
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10/07/2009
The District Court in Brno has passed a sentence for the largest forgery case in Czech history. Jan Trojan Jr. was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for selling forgeries of the work of 20th century artist Jan Zrzavý for an estimated 15 million crowns. Two charged as accomplices in the case received one-and-a-half to two-year probations for painting and signing acquisition documents to the counterfeits. Mr Trojan told the court the fraud had begun as a means of cheating his father – an antiquarian – out of millions. Jan Trojan Sr. was also on trial in the case, but died last year before the end of the proceedings.
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10/07/2009
More than 200 scientists and artists took to the streets on Wednesday at Prague’s Jan Palach Square for an event called “The Future is Not for Sale”, protesting state education and art policies. In speeches and slogans the crowd of students, professors and professionals attacked what they called the marginal interest of politicians in supporting science and education and the work of the governmental Council for Research, Experimental Development and Innovation, the members of which include politicians and businessmen. The current government has been criticised on a number of occasions for having proclaimed education a pillar of social development in their policy statement, and later cutting the education budget by 12 billion crowns.
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10/07/2009
Police in the West Bohemian town of Most have charged four members of the far-right Workers’ Party on suspicion of violent crimes. Three were arrested in a case in which officers pursuing noise complaints after a Neo-Nazi march in August were ambushed by a group of six young people. The fourth is charged with riotous conduct after attacking to a cameraman from a civic society who was filming a Workers’ Party event in November of last year. If convicted the attackers face up to five years imprisonment.
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10/07/2009
Foreign trade in the Czech Republic for the month of August finished with a 10.6-billion-crown surplus, the Czech Statistical Office has reported. Improvement of 9.1 billion over August of last year marked the third month of year-on-year growth for foreign trade, and is put down primarily to a decreased deficit in mineral fuels trading and a higher surplus in machinery and vehicles trading.
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10/06/2009
The Constitutional Court has rejected a complaint regarding the validity of an amendment which prevents the government from transferring national powers to the EU without the consent of Parliament. The amendment broadened support for the Lisbon treaty in the Czech lowers house and its abrogation would have placed another hurdle in the way of the treaty’s ratification. The court is still expected to rule on a complaint by 17 right-wing senators who have asked it to asses the treaty’s compatibility with Czech law.
Prime Minister Jan Fisher and the Minister for EU affairs Stefan Fulle have welcomed Tuesday’s verdict as another important step on the road to the treaty’s ratification. Mr. Fischer is expected to meet with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and EC chief Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday to discuss the way forward on Lisbon.
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10/06/2009
Jiří Obelfalzer, the author of both complaints against the Lisbon treaty, has described the Constitutional Court’s ruling as a blow to the country’s sovereignty. He said the petition against the amendment had been reasonable and had been aimed at safeguarding the country’s rights and interests. He refused to speculate as to the possible outcome of the second complaint against the treaty.
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10/06/2009
Even twenty years after the fall of communism, communist thinking still presents a threat to Czech society, Civic Democrat leader Mirek Topolánek said at the opening of an international conference on the communist legacy in Prague. Mr. Topolánek said that remnants of the communist ideology remained buried deep in people’s minds and influenced decisions made in the present day. The Civic Democrat leader said he saw daily proof of this in politics, in the media and also in the judiciary. He said the country’s hope lay in the new generation which was not burdened by the past.
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