News

The Czech Finance Ministry has confirmed that Czech government debt rose by 53.6 billion CZK (2.7 billion US dollars) in the first six months of 2007 to 856.1 billion CZK (43.2 billion US dollars). According to the ministry, the accumulation of state budget deficits were primarily responsible for the debt. Government debt is currently financed by treasury bills, government bonds, direct loans or loans from the European Investment Bank.

Former Agriculture Minister Milena Vicenova has been appointed the new Czech ambassador to the European Union. Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra made the announcement on Wednesday evening. Mrs. Vicenova will replace current ambassador Jan Kohout, who has been recalled before the end of his term in Brussels. The government said that it wanted to bring in a new ambassador now to prepare for the important period leading up to the country's presidency of the EU in the first half of 2009. According to Mr. Vondra, Mrs. Vicenova is only the second woman to join the diplomatic corps in Brussels. At present, only Luxembourg has a female ambassador to the EU, he said.

Czech and American military experts meeting to discuss the possibility of locating a U.S radar base on Czech territory have so far failed to agree on all outstanding issues. The Defence Ministry made the announcement on Wednesday night, a day after a second roubnd of negotiations was launched. A Defence Ministry spokesman added that while no consensus had been reached, progress had been made during the talks. Talks covering the technical aspects of the base last week resulted in agreement on around half the issues covered. The two sides are pushing ahead with negotiations in the hope of seeing an agreement signed by the end of the year. The Czech parliament is to make a final decision on the base early in 2008.

The leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Jiri Paroubek, has entered into the debate on whether Czech President Vaclav Klaus should speak out against environmentalists at the United Nations or not. On Wednesday, the head of the Czech Green Party, Martin Bursik, criticized the president, saying that Mr. Klaus' proposed speech could seriously jeopardize the Czech Republic's chances of winning a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council in 2008 and 2009. Today Mr. Paroubek voiced his opinion, saying that the president had no mandate to present his own subjective views, and that he should represent the views of his country's government instead. Mr. Klaus plans to address the United Nations at the end of September. His speech is expected to be about global-warming, and what he calls the 'over-politicisation' of this topic.