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In related news, Václav Havel has warned against the rise of authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe. In an interview for the German weekly Die Zeit that will appear on Thursday, Mr Havel also criticized Russia over the killings of independent journalists.

Reflecting on the two decades since the fall of communism, Mr Havel noted that all the fundamental objectives set down in 1989 were reached. However, the changes took much longer and were much more difficult than he expected, the former Czech president added.

The US-based Global Finance Magazine has put the governor of the Czech National Bank, Zdeněk Tůma, among the world’s top seven central bankers for 2009. According to the magazine, Mr Tůma responded well to the imminent economic slowdown by trimming rates in August last year, a move that proved successful. The only other European top graded central banker was European Central Bank’s Jean-Claude Trichet.

The acting director of Czech Radio, Richard Medek, was elected the new CEO of the country’s public broadcaster on Wednesday. Mr Medek, who was appointed the acting director after the Czech Radio Council removed the previous CEO in July, said his priorities included a 10 percent job cut and a licence fee raise. Mr Medek was previously Czech Radio’s programme director, and has also worked in several commercial media outlets.

A group of senators handed a complaint about the EU’s reforming Lisbon treaty to the Czech Constitutional Court on Tuesday afternoon. The move is expected to delay ratification of the reform document in the Czech Republic by anything between three and nine months. The Czech Republic is already amongst the last European states to ratify Lisbon; besides the Czechs, only Ireland and Poland are yet to approve the document. Opponents of the Constitutional Court complaint say the move could damage the Czech Republic’s standing in Europe, while senators responsible for bringing the complaint say that Lisbon encroaches upon Czech sovereignty and could be at odds with Czech national law. The Constitutional Court has already reviewed several controversial passages of the treaty at the request of right-wing senators. Last autumn it ruled that these articles were in line with Czech law. This time the court will be examining the entire reform document. Head of the court, Pavel Rychetský, called an extraordinary plenary session on Tuesday afternoon to get discussion of Lisbon underway.