If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. The Czech economy grew year-on-year by 3.7 percent in the second quarter of 2022 and by 0.5 percent when compared to the previous quarter, the Czech Statistics Agency reported on Tuesday. . Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky met his Ukrainian counterpart and assured him of the continuing Czech support for Ukraine facing the Russian invasion, before informal summit of the EU countries’ diplomacy heads in Prague on Tuesday, Lipavsky has tweeted. The Prague City Hall wants to intensify the integration of Roma people into public life, fight against the majority society’s prejudices against Roma and provide social aid to them, based on the Roma integration concept for 2022-2030 which the City Council approved today. Czech Chief of Staff Karel Rehka has visited Ukraine with his delegation, in particular Chernihiv and Kharkiv near the Ukrainian-Russian border and the front lines. Ukrainian Chief of Staff Valerii Zaluzhnyi said he appreciated the involvement and help of the Czech Republic both in the military area and in the hospitality the Czechs gave to the Ukrainian refugees. ...
Last year, the Czech Republic was the fastest growing EU country in terms of debt, and while Italy and Greece take the crown for the most debt overall, there are fears that Czechia could soon be facing trouble over its public finances. Last year’s budget deficit surpassed 2020’s record high, the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) states in its opinion published on Monday on the draft of the Czech Republic’s final state of accounts for 2021. NKÚ also pointed out that Czechia ranked among the countries with the lowest economic growth in the EU last year. On the other hand, the report positively evaluated the country’s low unemployment rate. The ratio of Czech public debt to GDP increased by 4.2 percentage points year-over-year in 2021, the highest among all EU countries. “While 20 EU countries were able to reduce their debt to GDP year-over-year in 2021, ours increased by more than four percentage points,” said the president of NKÚ, Miloslav Kala. According to Kala, the high share of mandatory and quasi-mandatory state expenditures prevented a better result. Expenditures established by law and necessary for running the state absorbed almost 94 percent of state budget revenues in 2021. Thus, the government had only approximately...
The Czech Republic will convene an extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers on September 9, Reuters reported with reference to the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, Jozef Sikela. Prague announced its intention to convene an urgent meeting on August 26. Earlier, Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Twitter also said that the Czech Presidency of the EU would convene an extraordinary meeting of energy ministers. According to him, this meeting it is planned to consider specific emergency measures to address the energy situation. On August 28, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer called to stop the madness that is happening in the energy market and work out a common solution for the EU. He also called for abandoning the principle of linking the price of gas to the cost of electricity. Fiala and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed on Monday that a Europe-wide solution to the issue of energy prices had to be found. Mr. Scholz said that present electricity prices were unjust because the cost of production was not so high, adding that structural change was needed. Mr. Fiala reiterated that Czechia wished to be involved in the development of a European energy infrastructure and to acquire capacity in...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. The Czech General Health Insurance Company (VZP) paid about 593 million crowns for some 104,600 Ukrainian refugees’ health care by late June, each less than 5,000 crowns, the insurance company representatives said at a press conference after the board of directors meeting today. The health care of 16 refugees cost more than a million crowns. . Prague will in the near weeks host the first session on the establishment of a new European political group that will regularly meet to debate security problems facing Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron said today. The new group was also mentioned by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a lecture at Charles University during his Prague visit. Czechia’s second city Brno is seeking to become a European Capital of Culture in the year 2028. It is running under the slogan Brno With You. The organisers of the project will find out on 14 October if the Moravian capital has made it into the second round Last year, Czechia saw its government debt rise the fastest out of all...
Fifty-seven thousand Ukrainian children and students have signed up to attend Czech schools in the new school year, according to Czech Education Minister Vladimír Balaš. At the start of June, it was estimated that 130,000 Ukrainian students and children were on Czech territory. However, it is still unclear how many children will start attending school. The capacity of schools should be sufficient in most places in the Czech Republic, thanks to the law amendment called Lex Ukraine II, allowing principals to create separate classes. For the 2021-2022 school year, about 965,000 primary school pupils have enrolled, statistics from the education ministry show. In the last school year, only a fraction of Ukrainian children attended classes – 19% of children were enrolled at the kindergarten level, while 38% were at the primary school level. Low parental awareness was a barrier to the participation of Ukrainian children in lessons, as were rejections by schools and kindergartens. The situation was also complicated by the ongoing Ukrainian online classes. Some Ukrainian principals insisted on “distance” attendance for their students, including those in exile. This overlap, therefore, led to pupils focusing exclusively on online learning from Ukraine. The positive news is that according to the PAQ Research study,...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. The Czech Interior Ministry will give out 200 million crowns to regions for running their assistance centres of aid to Ukrainian refugees that the regions have so far funded from their own budgets, the ministry has written on its website. . The amount of money Czechs donated to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion six months ago has exceeded 4 billion Kč (over €160 million), the Czech News Agency (CTK) reported. Czech senior opposition ANO deputy group leader Alena Schillerova handed a proposal for convoking a lower house session on a no-confidence vote in the government, signed by 74 MPs, to lower house head Marketa Pekarova Adamova (TOP 09). Out of the 74 MPs signing the motion, 56 were from ANO and 18 from the junior opposition Freedom and Democracy (SPD). Defence ministers of Czechia, Poland and Slovakia signed a joint declaration on Saturday that, starting from September, Czech and Polish aircraft will help Slovakia in the defence of her skies, Czech Radio reports. Canoeist Gabriela Satková won the water...
The Prague City Court declared bankruptcy on Sberbank CZ, the Czech subsidiary of the Russian Sberbank. In late July, the court launched proceedings in the Sberbank CZ bankruptcy case. The bank is insolvent and, according to June’s data, it has overdue liabilities of more than EUR 2.3 million. On 6 October, the Prague City Court will hold a second hearing on the lawsuits filed by creditors. “During bankruptcy, the debtor’s assets are sold, and the proceeds are distributed among his creditors,” the report reads. In early May, the Czech National Bank (CNB) revoked Sberbank CZ’s banking license, after which the Prague City Court took appropriate measures to liquidate the bank. With measures to revoke the license, the Central Bank of Ukraine reacted to the deterioration of the situation in the Sberbank subsidiary due to the outflow of deposits in the wake of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. As reported, in July the European Union extended sanctions against the Russian Sberbank as part of the seventh package of economic restrictions. Sberbank closed its branches in the Czech Republic on February 25. The 25 branches of Sberbank CZ, which is part of the Sberbank Europe group, have a customer base of 120,000 people. Sberbank...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. The Czech Interior Ministry will give out 200 million crowns to regions for running their assistance centres of aid to Ukrainian refugees that the regions have so far funded from their own budgets, the ministry has written on its website. . The Czech Republic and Ukraine plan an agreement on cooperation in education to harmonise their steps in instruction that is to be signed in the autumn. According to the original estimates, up to 130,000 pupils from Ukraine were expected to start attending schools in the Czech Republic in the new school year. The Czech civil servants trade union ended the strike alert it had declared in support of its demand for a pay rise in early June, its leader Pavel Bednar told journalists today, following the Czech government decision to increase the relevant salaries. The frozen salaries will be raised by 10 percent as of September not only for people working in the public sector but also for civil servants. At the upcoming Expo 2025 world exhibition in Osaka, Japan, Czechia is...
Russians traveling to the European Union will have to pay more and withstand additional bureaucracy to obtain a short-term visa, according to a compromise solution aimed at allaying member states’ differences on how far restrictions should go. The Czech government, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, will propose fully suspending visa-facilitation agreements with Russia and Belarus at a meeting of foreign ministers in Prague next week, according to Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky. That move would fall short of a ban for tourists called for by members including Estonia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It would still allow Russians and Belarusians to apply for short-term entry. But it would increase processing times for visas, require more documentation and raise costs to 80 euros ($80) from 35 euros. Germany is among governments that have pushed back on the kind of across-the-board visa restrictions backed by the Baltic states, who have complained about an influx of Russian tourists this summer since Moscow lifted Covid-19 restrictions in July. Lipavsky acknowledged this week that member states were divided on this issue. “Receiving a European tourism visa is a privilege, not a human right,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told journalists in Tallinn...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. Czechia wants to help Georgia enter the EU, Czech ambassador to Georgia Petr Mikyska told CTK without specifying what steps the Czech Republic could take as the leading EU country this half-year. Georgia did not gain the status of the EU candidate at the summit this June, unlike Ukraine and Moldova. . The Czech Interior Ministry will give out 200 million crowns to regions for running their assistance centres of aid to Ukrainian refugees that the regions have so far funded from their own budgets, the ministry has written on its website. The Czech Republic has sent military material worth 3.8 billion crowns to Ukraine over the six months of the war and it is also helping the wounded soldiers. Along with the government help, the provisioning of the Ukrainian military has also been joined by Czech firms. Helicopters, tanks, howitzers and missile launchers delivered by the Czech Republic were used in Ukraine in the past months. The Czech Republic has sent 5.9 billion crowns to war refugees from Ukraine in the form...
On Wednesday, August 23, the Czech government approved the so-called “energy tariff” program. It consists of the provision of state assistance to all private consumers with the payment of bills for electricity, gas and heating. On average, households will receive CZK 15,000. Part of the program is the abolition of the mandatory fee for the development of renewable energy (poplatek za obnovitelné zdroje elektřiny). Consumers will be exempt from this fee until the end of 2023. In total, households with low energy consumption should receive CZK 11,000, those with medium consumption around CZK 14,000 to 15,000 and those with the highest rates of consumption CZK 18,000, Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Síkela said on Wednesday. Currently, the government is preparing a website with a special calculator, where residents can find out the amount of assistance specifically in their case. It will be launched on the website of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade. The energy-saving tariff will take the form of a subsidy from the state budget intended for energy suppliers, who will then reduce payments to households by this subsidy. Assistance will be provided gradually throughout the winter season. Consumers will notice the first discounts on invoices in...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. The Czech Health Ministry has signed a contract with the Pfizer US firm for the supplies of the Paxlovid antivirotic used for the treatment of COVID-19 until the end of this year and its first supply is to arrive in Czechia in September, ministry spokesman Ondrej Jakob told CT today. . The number of illegal migrants entering Czechia across the Slovak border has increased this year. Mostl of them are Syrians coming from Turkey and heading for Germany and Austria. The Interior Ministry increased the number of places in the refugee facilities and wants to tighten the penalties for people-smugglers. Frozen wages will be raised by 10 percent as of September not only for people working in the public sector but also for civil servants, trade union leaders and government party heads agreed today. This pay rise will cost the Czech state 1.1 billion crowns by the end of the year. The Czech Republic has sent 5.9 billion crowns to war refugees from Ukraine in the form of humanitarian benefits in the six...
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