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Most Czechs are not interested in the upcoming Czech presidency of the European Union, according to a poll conducted by the CVVM agency. Most people said they didn’t have enough information on the Czech EU presidency and only 24 percent of respondents said they were interested in the issue. The Czech Republic will assume the presidency of the European Union in January 2009. The motto of the Czech presidency is ‘Europe without barriers’ marking 20 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain and five years since the enlargement of the European Union.

Czech President Václav Klaus has appointed 94 new university professors, including 19 women, who were nominated by academic and artistic councils of various universities. Most of the newly appointed professors are from Charles University.

Czech retail sales in March decreased by 2.1 percent on the year after more than four years of continuous growth, the Czech Statistical office announced on Monday. The figure was affected by a lower number of working days and colder weather. A year-on-year decline in sales was recorded both for foodstuffs and other goods.

Around 1,000 visitors including Senate chairman Přemysl Sobotka, met at the National Cemetery at Terezín in northern Bohemia on Sunday for a commemoration service honouring those who died in the Holocaust. In the years 1941 to 1945 the Nazis forced 155,000 Jews from all over Europe into the Terezín ghetto. Of that number, 117,000 did not live to see the end of the war - the majority sent to Nazi extermination camps such as Auschwitz. Sunday’s ceremony came roughly a month after the cemetery was hit by theft: more than 800 bronze plaques were stolen in April, apparently for scrap metal. Damages have been estimated at 2.5 million crowns. Police apprehended a 29-year-old suspect in the case and are looking into whether there were other accomplices. The act of theft has led to a wave of solidarity from donors, including schools, hoping to raise money for the site.