News

Air traffic in Prague was disrupted on Friday   after an unauthorised drone entered the no-fly zone around Václav Havel Airport. One flight had to be diverted to Vienna, while several others were delayed. Police said they detained one person and seized the drone.

European airports regularly face problems involving drones in restricted airspace. Earlier this year, Berlin airport temporarily suspended operations because of a reported flying object, while airports in Eindhoven, Brussels, Munich and Gothenburg have faced similar incidents in recent months.

Prague airport also dealt with a drone-related security scare last October after an anonymous threat, although no drones were ultimately detected and operations were not affected.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš met Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever in Prague on Friday for talks on energy, security and the war in Ukraine. At a joint press conference afterwards, the two leaders said the European Union must bring high energy prices under control in order to remain competitive.

De Wever praised Babiš for raising the issue of energy prices at the European level and for openly addressing the problem. Babiš said the Czech Republic remains active in efforts to revise the EU emissions trading system. The two leaders also discussed energy security and nuclear power.

Both prime ministers said they hoped the war in Ukraine would end soon and lead to peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow. Babiš added that Belgium is an important trading partner for the Czech Republic. Czech exports to Belgium reached a record CZK 136 billion last year, while total trade between the two countries amounted to CZK 220 billion.

President Petr Pavel and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš remain at odds over the makeup of the Czech delegation to July’s NATO summit in Ankara. Speak to journalists after talks at Prague Castle on Friday, Pavel said he still plans to attend, despite Babiš arguing that the president should not be part of the delegation.

Pavel said representing the country abroad is a constitutional power of the president. He added that he would consider filing a constitutional complaint only as a last resort if he is ultimately excluded from the summit. The government is expected to decide on the delegation in June.

The president said he insists on attending the opening part of the summit, including an informal dinner of heads of state and discussions on global security. The official talks, he said, could then be attended by Babiš together with the foreign and defence ministers.

Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka and his German counterpart Johann Wadephul signed a memorandum in Berlin on Friday extending the Czech-German Future Fund until 2037. Established under the 1997 Czech-German Declaration, the fund supports cross-border projects and Czech-German reconciliation initiatives. The two sides will decide on its future financing at a later stage.

Macinka welcomed the fact that the meeting took place on May 8th, the anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. Earlier in the day, he laid flowers at Berlin’s former Plötzensee prison, where more than 670 Czechoslovaks were executed by the Nazis during the war.

Speaking there with Czech-German Discussion Forum co-chair Jörg Nürnberger, Macinka also commented on the planned Sudeten German congress in Brno later this month. He said Sudeten German leader Bernd Posselt had underestimated the reaction the event would provoke in the Czech Republic and criticised the choice of local partners for the gathering.