Daily news summary
Eurostat: Employment rate of migrants born outside EU highest in Czechia
A greater percentage of migrants born outside the European Union have found work in the Czech Republic than in the other 27 EU member states, data released on Monday by Eurostat show.
In 2017, the employment rate of persons in the EU aged 20-64 years ranged from 63.0 per cent among migrants born outside the EU, through 73.0 per cent among the native-born population, to 75.4 per cent recorded for migrants born in a different EU member state.
For migrants born outside the EU, the employment rate was highest in the Czech Republic, at 79.4 per cent, followed by Romania, at 76.3 per cent, Portugal, at 74.5 per cent, and Poland, at 73.0 per cent, according to Eurostat.
Tax authorities auditing Airbnb operators, cracking down on “shared economy”
The Financial Administration (FS) office has accessed and compiled data on people renting out property in the Czech Republic through Airbnb and begun systematic checks into whether they are meeting their tax obligations, business daily Hospodářské noviny reported on Monday.
The office in recent months has stepped up efforts to tax so-called “shared economy” businesses, such as the taxi company Uber, which earlier in July agreed to register new drivers and report earnings using electronic cash registers later this year.
Ukraine protests “illegal” visit by Czech politicians to Crimea
The Ukrainian embassy in Prague has protested the “illegal” visit of two Czech politicians to the territory of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, Interfax reported.
Communist MEP Jaromír Kohlíček and Senator Jaroslav Doubrava of the Severočeši.cz movement attended Sunday's Sevastopol parade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the embassy said.
“To somehow whitewash their crimes, Russia is chaotically searching around the world for politicians with a lower threshold of political hygiene, who are ready to participate in propaganda voyages to the occupied peninsula. Unfortunately, several such politicians were found in the Czech Republic,” the embassy said in a statement, according to Interfax.
Philadelphia returning shield looted by Nazis from Bohemian castle
The Philadelphia Museum of Art will return a ceremonial shield to the Czech Republic that had been looted by Nazi authorities during the occupation of the Bohemian castle Konopiště.
Museum Director Timothy Rub told Czech diplomat Antonín Hradilek that new documentation had offered proof the shield was taken from Konopiště, the Swiss Jewish publication tachles reported. The Nazis had intended to include the shield, crafted during the Italian Renaissance, within Hitler’s planned “Führer Museum”.
The Czech government had asked the museum to acknowledge Czech ownership of the shield based on a Declaration passed in December 1998 by 44 nations at the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets.
PM to mediate H-System cooperative, bankruptcy administrator meeting
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) on Monday began mediating the first of a series of meetings between former clients of collapsed building firm H-System, ordered last week to vacate their homes, and the bankruptcy administrator, whom the Supreme Court ruled had the right to dispose of their properties.
Some 60 former H-System clients, who have formed a housing cooperative called Svatopluk, are refusing to leave their apartments, which they themselves completed after the building system went bust in the late 1990s. The Svatopluk cooperative has said it will file an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Press: Czech banks could lose hundreds of millions due to MiFID II
Czech banks may see profits drop by hundreds of millions of crowns due to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), which forces lenders to reveal how much they bill customers for exchange rate hedging operations, a source told the daily E15.
Part of Europe’s biggest regulatory overhaul in a decade, the regulations in part were intended to stop banks from selling products that clients do not need or understand.
Czech banks, especially established lenders, have had a reputation of charging high and hidden fees. Newcomers to the market often highlight transparency in this regard to win over customers.
Incoming labour minister to propose higher parental leave benefit
Jana Maláčová (Social Democrats), due to be appointed Labour and Social Affairs Minister on Monday, has said she will propose that the parental leave benefit be increased by 40,000 crowns by the end of 2019 to reach 260,000 crowns.
The parental leave benefit is paid monthly for a period of up to four years. Parents can opt to draw down more money over a shorter period, with the monthly allowance currently capped at 32,640 crowns.
Czech found guilty of electrocuting wife and child seeks case review
A Czech man sentenced to 28 years in prison for murdering his wife and daughter while on holiday in Egypt has asked for a review of the court decision, according to independent association Šalamoun, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice.
Petr Kramný was found guilty in 2016 of intentionally electrocuting his 36-year-old wife and 8-year-old daughter during their 2013 holiday in the Hurghada resort. Kramný maintains that his family had all suffered severe food poisoning and only he survived.
Weather outlook
Tuesday should be clear and sunny in Bohemia with daytime highs of 32 to 36 degrees Celsius. The forecast is for partly cloudy skies throughout the rest of the country.
