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The right-of-centre Civic Democratic Party, the ODS, has criticised the terms for the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union, negotiated at the EU summit in Copenhagen last week. The summit saw the Czech Republic, along with nine other candidate countries invited to join the European Union in May 2004. On Wednesday ODS deputy chairman Jan Zahradil proposed the Lower House pass a resolution calling the results of the negotiations "unsatisfactory". He called the EU's terms worse than in previous expansion, and added the EU was poorly prepared for expansion in general. During the debate on the issue, the Freedom Union's Pavel Svoboda, the head of the Chamber of Deputies' European integration committee, countered Mr Zahradil by saying it was "a petty debate", adding that the Czech Republic would have missed an historic chance if it hadn't come to an agreement now. Mr Svoboda called on the Lower House to pass a resolution saying EU accession talks had been a success. In the end the Civic Democrats' proposal was voted down, while the government's assessment passed.

A former military prosecutor has become the second candidate to be officially nominated for the post of Czech president. Miroslav Krizenecky, nominated by the Communist Party, was backed by all 41 Communist MPs in the lower house. Mr Krizenecky follows Vaclav Klaus, former leader of the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, who was nominated by his party two weeks ago. A successor to President Vaclav Havel will be elected in a joint session of parliament on January 15th. The parties of the ruling coalition have yet to put forward their candidates.

A public opinion poll conducted by the STEM agency this month suggests that the senior government coalition party, the Social Democratic Party has become the most popular party in the country. Supported by 27.2 percent of Czechs, its support has increased by one percent since than last month. On the other hand, the opposition right-of-centre Civic Democrats who had been enjoying rising support for several months saw a three-percent fall in voter support with 25.6 percent. The Communist Party remained third but recorded a slight increase of 1.5 percent to 14.6 percent.

In dramatic last minute talks, the Czech Republic negotiated an increase in compensation payment for 2004-2006, which means an additional 83 million euros from the EU for the government budget. During the same time the country will be allowed to transfer 100 million euros from EU structural funds. Moreover, it will be able to increase direct agricultural subsidies from the government budget to 55, 60 and 65 percent of the EU level in 2004-2006.