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09/20/2007
The Czech Senate has approved a first draft of an amendment which would ban the use and display of both Nazi and Communist symbols. Over the next couple of months, the matter will be discussed further by the Senate, and then, if approved, by the lower house. Senators from the leading Civic Democratic Party are split over the amendment. Critics call the proposal undemocratic and unconstitutional. The proposal is to outlaw the logos of extremist groups, such as the swastika and the hammer and sickle. But the Czech Communist Party, whose logo may also be affected by the amendment, has said in response that it is a democratic party, and not an extremist group. A similar amendment was proposed under the last government, but it was not approved in the lower house.
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09/20/2007
On Thursday, Czech unions launched a renewed attack on the government's financial reform package, in response to the Senate approving the reforms the previous evening. At a press conference on Thursday morning, the head of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, Milan Stech, told journalists that the reforms would not benefit the Czech Republic's lowest earners, families and pensioners. He added that he would be prepared to organize protests, should that be the move that his colleagues would like him to take. Unions protested against the reform package earlier this year, most notably on Prague's Wenceslas Square in June. Having been approved by both the lower and upper houses, the reforms are now just waiting for the green-light from President Vaclav Klaus.
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09/20/2007
According to Hospodarske Noviny, the Czech government has lowered the target it set for over 500 civil servants to learn French fluently by 2009. The Czech Republic takes over the EU presidency from France at the beginning of 2009, and hundreds of civil servants had been sent to Prague's French Institute to gain a command of the language as part of the preparations. But now, the government has lowered its expectations, asking only for a basic knowledge of French from its employees. Time constraints have been blamed for move. The Czech Minister for European Affairs, Alexandr Vondra has been quoted as saying that he himself does not speak French, and finds it unlikely that he would learn it well enough to help him within a one-year time frame.
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09/20/2007
Minister Vondra met with his French and Swedish counterparts in Prague on Wednesday, in a meeting to decide upon joint-policy for the 3 countries' successive EU presidencies. The Czechs will be taking the presidency on from the French at the beginning of 2009, while the Swedes will take over from the Czechs at the helm of the EU in July 2009. The French State Secretary of European Affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Czech Minister for Europe, Alexandr Vondra, and the Swedish Foreign and European Ministers, decided that they would make the implementation of EU reforms the joint aim of their respective presidencies. The ministers will meet again in Luxembourg in mid-October, to further discuss proposals.
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09/20/2007
The Czech government has been ordered to consider compensating families who were stripped of their property by the so-called 'Benes decrees' in 1945. On Thursday, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the Czech Ministry of Finance was wrong to turn down the Porkert family's case for compensation without considering it duly beforehand. The Porkert family once owned the Fotochema factory in East Bohemia, but it was nationalized by presidential decree following on from the Second World War. A spokesperson for the Czech Ministry of Finance said that the Ministry respected the verdict even though it differed from previous Supreme Court rulings, which went in favour of the government.
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09/20/2007
More than 50% of Czechs expect changes brought about by the recent public finance reform bill to negatively affect their lives, concludes a poll conducted by the Factum Invenio agency, and released on Thursday. The least popular facets of the reform bill were the rise in the lower rate of VAT from 5% to 9%, and the introduction of medical fees, with over 80% of Czechs saying that they would be negatively affected by these changes. Respondents to the poll accepted the introduction of flat income tax as the best of all of the changes to be made, though this was still relatively speaking. The reforms will come into effect in January next year.
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09/20/2007
Slavia Prague celebrated a 2:1 win over Steaua Bucharest in their Champions League debut on Wednesday night. They now join London team Arsenal with three points at the top of Group H. Despite their early success in the competition, Slavia are aiming, according to their manager Karel Jarolim, to finish third overall in Group H. This would rule them out of the knockout stages of the competition, but would provide them with the consolation of a UEFA cup slot. Slavia's next Champions League match is away against Spanish team Seville, on 2nd October.
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09/19/2007
President Vaclav Klaus has dismissed the Czech Republic's ambassador to the European Union Jan Kohout. A spokesman for Mr Klaus told the Czech Press Agency on Wednesday that the President had recalled Mr Kohout in accordance with the government's instructions and that he would be replaced by the former Agriculture Minister Milena Vicenova by the end of the year.
Mr Kohout's tenure as Czech ambassador to Brussels had been due to expire in May 2008. Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra had previously said that Mr Kohout was being dismissed early to give his successor time to prepare for the Czech Republic's presidency of the EU at the beginning of 2009. Some critics have claimed, however, that the move is politically motivated. Mr Kohout is a member of the opposition Social Democratic Party.
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09/19/2007
As expected the government's financial reform package has been passed by the Czech Senate. 49 out of 80 senators present voted for the legislation, which will introduce controversial new changes to the countries tax and welfare systems. The Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has repeatedly said that the reforms are needed to curb a rampant public-spending deficit. The reforms will now have to be signed by President Vaclav Klaus before they can be enacted.
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09/19/2007
A spokeswoman for the Czech government has told journalists that the ruling cabinet has unanimously approved the draft budget for 2008. The draft budget submitted by the Finance Ministry reckons on a deficit of 70.8 billion Czech crowns or 3.5 billion US dollars. This amounts to 2.95 percent of GDP just below the crucial 3-percent limit set by the EU as one of the criteria for adopting the euro.
Areas that will be receiving significantly more money include education, culture and agriculture. The budget still has to pass a vote in the lower house of parliament where the centre-right governing coalition has a slender majority, which depends on the support of rebel MPs from the Social Democrat opposition.
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