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This year Prague saw one of its warmest winters in the past 250 years, the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute reported on Wednesday.

Between the start of December and end of February, the oldest Czech meteorological station at Prague’s Klementinum recorded an average temperature of 5.1 degrees Celsius, which is 2.8 degrees higher than the long-term average.

This makes it the second warmest winter since measuring began at the station 1775, along with the winter of 2020. Above-average temperatures were mainly recorded in February, which was the warmest on record with an average of 8.1 degrees Celsius.

So far the warmest winter on record was in 2006, with an average temperature of 5.8 degrees Celsius. The coldest winter recorded was in 1829 with an average temperature of -6.1 degrees Celsius.

Some 62 percent of restaurants and pubs in Czechia increased the price of draft beer in reaction to the increase in VAT rates on drinks and food, according to a survey conducted by Plzeňský Prazdroj among 3,400 pubs in Czechia. According to the survey results, released on Wednesday, the price of beer on tap increased by an average of CZK 2.80 per pint.

The remaining 38 percent of pubs and restaurants have not yet increased prices, mainly because of fears of losing customers. Starting this year, the value added tax on draught beer and soft drinks went from 10 to 21 percent. A pint of draught beer currently costs between CZK 50 and 60.

Six new pumped-storage hydroelectric power plants could be built in Czechia, Czech Television reported. The ministries of the environment and agriculture have presented a list of the most suitable sites for the plants, comprising Orlík, Slapy, Pastviny, Libochovany, Vinice and Slezská Harta.

The construction would cost tens of billions of crowns and the new facilities would double the current output of pumped-storage power plants, the minister of the environment, Petr Hladík, said.

The Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and the French President Emmanuel Macron signed a strategic partnership action plan during a visit by the latter to Prague on Tuesday. The document is focused on European and foreign policy, security and defence, migration, trade, social affairs, science and culture and is valid until 2028.

The action plan refers to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as illegal and unprovoked armed aggression.

In the document the two states declare that they have long-standing good relations based on shared values and similar or identical foreign policy interests.