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06/19/2009
In related news, the lower house of Parliament approved an association agreement between the EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement is required for the future entry of the country into the European Union, and has to be ratified by all of the EU’s 27 member states. The EU has signed similar documents with Albania, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Serbia.
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06/19/2009
Around 7,000 secondary school students from around the country marched in Prague on Friday in protest against the government’s plan to introduce uniform school-leaving exams. Students take the exam, known as maturita, at the end of their secondary education. Until now, each school designed its own exam. The government wanted to change that from next year and introduce a standard final exam for all students at Czech secondary schools. The protesters said the project was poorly prepared, and complained they did not have enough information about study requirements for the exam. Czech Education Minister Miroslava Kopicová, who met with some of the protesters, said the project could be postponed by a year.
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06/19/2009
The two biggest Czech political parties, the Civic Democrats and the Social Democrats, are neck in neck four months ahead of the early general elections, according to a new poll by the STEM which was published on Friday. The poll suggests that both parties would gain just over 28 percent of the vote. Third in the poll came the Communists, with 12.8 percent, followed by the Christian Democrats with 6.2 percent. That party would also be the last to get into Parliament. The poll was carried out before a new party, TOP 09, formed last week. According to other public opinion surveys, TOP 09 could gain as much as 12 percent of the vote in October’s early elections to the lower house.
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06/19/2009
Czech farmers are going to block motorways around the country on June 29 in protest against low milk prices, the head of the Czech Agricultural Chamber, Jan Veleba, told the press on Friday. Czech farmers demand help from the government and the EU, and want fixed minimum milk prices to be introduced.Mr Veleba said several hundred farmers are likely to join in the protest but did not disclose which parts of the Czech highway system will be blocked.
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06/19/2009
The seventh case of swine flu in the Czech Republic was confirmed on Friday, only one day after the announcement of the last case. Czech health authorities said a 28-year-old woman who recently travelled from the United States tested positive for the H1N1 virus. The patient is in good clinical condition and is being monitored at her home.
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06/19/2009
The National Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the United States, is going to move to a new location. The museum’s director, Gail Naughton, told a local radio station that the institute would move due the high risk of floods in the area. The museum was heavily damaged by flooding in June 2008 which destroyed the library and displays about the history of Czech and Slovak minorities in the US. The museum, which was founded in 1995 and attracted some 35,000 visitors each year, is expected to re-open at the new location within three to five years’ time.
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06/19/2009
The ashes of the late singer Waldemar Matuška were interred in Prague’s Vyšehrad cemetery on Friday, after more than 12,000 people, including President Václav Klaus, paid their respect to the singer the previous day. Waldermar Matuška, one of the most popular Czech singers of the 1960s and 70s, died in his Florida home last month.
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06/18/2009
The final European summit of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency got underway in Brussels this Thursday, chaired by Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer. Items on the agenda at the European Council meeting include Ireland’s ratification of the Lisbon treaty, the appointment of the next head of the European Commission and regulation of the bloc’s financial markets. Mr Fischer is also to discuss the role of the Czech Republic’s next European commissioner, even though he said on Tuesday that it would be up to the next government to decide who should fill this post.
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06/18/2009
The state-run electric company ČEZ is set to receive a major windfall following a parliament proposal to change the format for emissions trading in the future. The amendment proposes to allow power companies to escape the obligation to buy emissions allowances if they invest the savings instead in clean power production technology. The proposed new law has been sharply contested by many, the Green Party in particular, who say it is a bonus worth billions of crowns for ČEZ that will not necessarily result in cheaper electricity. Proponents of the bill however claim that the electric company deserves to offset some of the costs of investing in cleaner, mostly non-coal burning power plants. Criticism is also focusing on the fact that the bill was not submitted to the government according to usual legislative practice, but was attached to a reading of the Consumer Tax Act - a method frowned upon by the Constitutional Court.
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06/18/2009
The lower house of parliament has overturned a presidential veto to ratify last year’s antidiscrimination act. 118 MPs across the political spectrum voted for the act, with the exclusion of the Communist Party. The new law is primarily intended to define when behaviour towards individuals is discriminatory and when not, and to emphasize equal opportunity. The Czech Republic was expected to pass an antidiscrimination act in 2004 upon entry to the EU, and is the last member state to do so. President Václav Klaus vetoed the act a year ago, saying it was unnecessary as basic rights were already covered by the constitution and other acts.
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