Daily news summary
Temelin: error in servicing did not endanger safety
The management of the Temelin nuclear power plant on Monday reported a human error in servicing when lightly radioactive water was released into the wrong reservoir. The water remained in a closed circuit and the incident did not endanger safety or affect power production, Temelin said in a statement.
A report was sent to the State Institute for Nuclear Safety and, in line with a bilateral agreement, to the Austrian authorities in Melk.
PM Babis: EU needs unity in foreign policy and trade
The European Union needs unity in its foreign and trade policy, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told the German daily Bild.
The Czech prime minister said the trade dispute with US President Donald Trump showed how badly Europe needed to stand together and act in unity. He said Brexit was bad in every way for Europe and Brussels must prevent further departures from the bloc.
As regards the Czech Republic, Babiš said the country’s departure from the EU would be a disaster.
On the domestic front, the Czech prime minister rejected the idea that the Communists, who supported the minority government of ANO and the Social Democrats, had acquired significant influence on national decision-making.
Government to fight poverty business
The government is planning a series of measures to fight the poverty business.
Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jana Maláčová said her own ministry was cooperating with the ministries of the interior, health and local development on 15 measures which would prevent money-making activities that attract a large portion of their business from the poor.
These include rental price maps, hygiene norms in properties for rent and a limit on the number of persons per square meter. The measures are currently being consulted with town mayors.
According to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš the government will not try to push through a law on social housing, but will provide housing subsidies for selected localities.
PM’s wife resigns from board of Imoba company
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’ wife Monika has resigned from the board of Imoba, the company that owns the Stork’s Nest farm and conference centre, over which her husband faces charges of EU subsidy fraud, the daily E15 reported on Monday.Monika Babišova left the board at her own request without giving any reasons.
Prime Minister Babiš is suspected of having manipulated the status of the Stork’s Nest farm in order to gain a 50 million crown EU subsidy for the company which would otherwise have been out of reach.
Although Babiš has denies any wrongdoing, Imoba recently returned the subsidy in full.
Czech unemployment in August at 3.2 percent
The Czech unemployment rate stood at 3.1 percent in August, the Czech Labour office reported on Monday. The number of job seekers reached 230,490, which is the lowest figure for the month since the year 1997. The number of vacancies increased slightly to 313.000. Last August the unemployment rate was at four percent.
Growing noise pollution in vicinity of Prague airport
Noise pollution in the vicinity of Prague’s Václav Havel Airport has worsened and the airport management has started fining companies that use louder planes than agreed on or shift their flights into the night hours.
According to the airport’s spokesman Roman Pacvon, the airport started issuing noise pollution fines in June of this year and has so far issued fines of over three million crowns.
The set noise pollution limits have not been violated to date, but aircraft noise has been getting worse in the night hours which could soon present a problem, Pacvon said.
In the first six months of 2018 the airport registered over 70,000 arrivals and departures, which is a 5.4 percent increase year-on-year.
Weather forecast
Tuesday should bring clear to partly cloudy skies and day temperatures between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius.
