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Czech women on average earn almost a quarter less than men, according to the results of a survey released by management recruitment company Anderson Willinger. It found that Czech women’s average wages were 23.6 percent lower. This is slightly better than the worst placed country – Austria – where the difference was 25.5 percent. The company said the difference was in part caused by the fact that in some countries wage differences between men and women are clearly defined as illegal. Also women tend to switch jobs less than men and often prefer that their working day does not exceed eight hours, it added.

Czech electricity giant ČEZ signed a 20 billion crown contract on Thursday to build its first major gas-fired power plant in the country. The power plant will have a capacity of 841 MW and should start supplying power from 2013. Construction will be supervised by ČEZ engineering daughter company, Škoda Praha Invest. ČEZ is switching power production out of polluting coal-fired plants. However, the move into gas-powered plants is controversial since the country’s biggest supplier of natural gas is Russia.

Organisers of the Nordic World Ski Championships held near Liberec in February say they could be facing a 116 million crowns shortfall. The head of the championships’ organising committee, Kateřina Neumannová, told town representative that costs were around 30 million more than originally planned and income so far 86 million lower. Legal proceedings to recover some outstanding debts could mean that the event breaks even, she said, adding that the process to get the money would be long and complicated. The 12-day event was the first time the Czech Republic has hosted a world championship ski event. The organisation of the event has long been the subject of criticism.

The Czech minister for European affairs, Štefan Fuele, says the Czech presidency has left three tasks unfulfilled: the election of a new president of the European Commission, enlarging the EU to take in Croatia, and strengthening relations with the new US administration. He said, however, that Prague had done all it could to deal with those matters, and any shortfalls were not due to a lack of effort. Mr Fuele made the comments after talks in Prague with the chair of the Swedish Parliament Per Westerberg. The Swedes take over the presidency of the EU from the Czech Republic on July 1.