Foreign Minister: missions will have to be closed down to meet austerity measures

The Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has said that in all likelihood the Czech Republic will have to close down around ten diplomatic missions, above all in South America and Africa, as the result of budget cuts. He made the statement in Budapest on Thursday, adding concrete locations would be discussed by the government at its next meeting. In addition to the closing down of bureaux abroad, the foreign minister also stressed that some 100 employees would be let go by the Foreign Ministry. The planned cuts are directly related to the government’s austerity measures, requiring individual ministries to save ten percent of their annual budgets for next year.