The Czech Republic’s State Agricultural and Food Inspection is set to ban the sale of products containing cannabidiol (CBD) and other hemp-derived substances due to their “novel food” classification under EU regulations. This means that these products, which include oils, candies, tinctures, and bonbons, were not widely consumed in EU member states before May 1997 and must be confirmed safe by the European Food Safety Authority before sale. The government today approved the Czech-US defence cooperation agreement (DCA), PM Petr Fiala (ODS) told journalists after a cabinet meeting. The agreement is intended to facilitate the possible stay of US troops in the Czech Republic. The document must still be approved by both houses of Parliament and signed by the president. The Czech Centre in the German capital Berlin officially opened at a new location on Monday. The institution has moved from the city’s Czech Embassy to the Berlin headquarters of the analogous Goethe Institute as the former will soon undergo major renovation work. Two shorts from Prague’s FAMU film school will compete in the La Cinef section at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, which takes place in May. Czechia will be represented in the competition by Electra by...
Smartwings is expanding its offerings for the upcoming summer season, with yet another exciting destination. Starting on the 26th of April 2024, Smartwings will introduce direct flights from Prague to Ponta Delgada Airport in the Azores. This scheduled service will run twice a week, specifically on Tuesdays and Fridays. Until now, travelers seeking a direct flight from Prague to the Azores, had to rely on different connecting flights. Flight QS1172 will depart from Prague Airport every Tuesday and Friday at noon, arriving at Ponta Delgada at 15:30 local time. The return flight, QS1173 from Ponta Delgada to Prague, is scheduled to depart at 16:15 local time, with a landing at Prague Airport at 22:50. “We are connecting Prague to the Canary Islands, including Tenerife (daily flights starting from May 6th, 2024), Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Madeira in Portugal, and we are delighted to announce that, come April, our customers can explore another alluring destination in the Atlantic: the largest island in the Azores, São Miguel. This will be exclusively accessible via direct Smartwings flights from Prague,” says Peter Šujan, Chief Commercial Officer of Smartwings. Starting tomorrow, the 14th of September, clients will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to Ponta...
The next Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform will be held in Prague on October 24. “I am glad that we agreed with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and its chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk that Prague will be the venue for the second meeting of this initiative on October 24,” Speaker of the Chamber of the Deputies of the Czech Republic Markéta Pekarová Adamová said at the Conference of the Speakers of EU Parliaments in Prague. According to her, the Platform is an important forum that helps spread information about the situation in occupied Crimea. “It sends a clear signal to the international community that changing borders by force is absolutely unacceptable”, Pekarová Adamová emphasized. Pekarová also received the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise from Ukrainian Supreme Council head Ruslan Stefanchuk for her exceptional personal efforts to strengthen the cooperation between Ukraine and the Czech Republic and support for Ukraine. The order was awarded to her by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The Crimea Platform summit was held for the first time in Zagreb, Croatia, last year, and was attended by then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. Pekarova Adamova called at the time for the establishment of an international...
The United Kingdom has long been a popular destination for passengers departing from Prague Airport. A new connection to the East Midlands region will be added in November, said Jiří Vyskoč, Executive Director of Air Business Development at Prague Airport. Prague Airport will offer flights to Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. During the winter, UK carrier Jet2.com will also operate a series of pre-Christmas flights from Prague to Edinburgh on Thursdays and Sundays from November 30 to December 17. Jet2.com currently operates five scheduled services from Prague Václav Havel Airport – Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle. Flights to East Midlands Airport will then operate from 10 November until 20 May 2024. The East Midlands-Prague line was operational until March 2020, and its reintroduction reflects rising demand in both markets. “I believe that the direct flight from East Midlands Airport will be appealing not only to British tourists but also to Czech passengers flying to Nottingham, Leicester, or Derby,” Vyskoč added. “We have seen strong demand for city breaks this winter season,” said Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.
This independent town of war veterans turned into a popular film location and cultural center in Karlin district. It is slightly getting alive, and you might be a witness to its rebirth. What You Can Explore in Invalidovna Invalidovna is one of the largest complexes in Prague, where you can still experience an authentic urbex exploration feeling. In the upcoming years, the Invalidovna will be reconstructed for the first time during its existence. Therefore, you have a unique opportunity to visit and explore the complex with its original atmosphere. Invalidovna was designed as a kind of a small town for war-veterans from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and later from Czechoslovakia. Initially, the whole complex was supposed to be nine times bigger. The veterans had their church, cemetery, slaughterhouse, bakery, fields, and orchards for agriculture, pub, and of course, accommodation rooms for their disposal. It was like a small world in the suburb of Prague. During a peak period, about 1.500 people lived there. Today, the whole complex is empty. Only some fragments remained such a prayer room and some sculptures. The Story of Invalidovna This extensive Baroque complex (constructed between 1731-1737) has its example in Paris Hotel Les Invalides. For the...
In comparison to the previous year, the city of Prague boosted its investment spending by 6.4 billion CZK (about USD 295 million), bringing its total investment to 16.5 billion CZK (USD 761 million). Transportation projects received the lion’s share of the investment budget. Over 9 billion CZK (USD 416 million) will be invested in infrastructure, transportation projects, and increasing inhabitants’ quality of life. The city’s tram service was increased, and bus lines were modernized as well. Work on the construction of the D metro line has begun, while other transportation infrastructure projects, such as the renovation of the Barrandov Bridge and the construction of the Stvanice footbridge, have been completed. According to Zdenek Kovarik, the city’s financial councilor, the city was able to invest in significant initiatives that contributed to the city’s development and the improvement of the lives of its citizens. However, the extent of the city’s planned investments exceeds its annual investment spending budget, so there will be difficult negotiations over investment priorities in the future. In 2022, the city spent 1.1 billion CZK (USD 50.8 million) on purchasing land and renewing public lighting and urban furniture. These investments should quickly pay for themselves and help save money in...
The city of Prague has increased its investment spending by 6.4 billion CZK in transportation projects, bringing its total investment to 16.5 billion CZK. With investments in the tram service, bus lines, and the construction of the D metro line, Prague is boosting the quality of life for its citizens, reduce traffic congestion and improving air quality. The EU just approved a package of reforms to tackle climate change. Starting in 2027, emissions from heating buildings and road transport will be charged, with free allowances ending by 2034. A social climate fund will be created to help households cope with increased heating costs. Additionally, the EU will implement a carbon border tax. The Crimea Platform Parliamentary Summit, which seeks the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the end of Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula, will be held in Prague on 23-24 October, Czech lower house speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova told journalists at a press conference yesterday. The Office for Personal Data Protection has confirmed a 975,000 crown fine meted out to the Ministry of Interior for unauthorized police processing of data on the health of people who were ordered to isolate because of Covid. The case concerns...
The city of Prague will rename 21 streets, the majority of which are new or have never had a name. For example, will be added Huppnerova or Stočesova street in Prague 6 and Cigánkova street in Prague 11. The need for street naming emerged as a result of the construction of residential and family homes, but also to improve direction. Because of the completion of large-scale home development, Na Výrovně, Hasilova, Bělohlávkova, Cazovská, or Toufarova streets in Řeporyje will be named, as will Pavel Bene, Jan Mikula, Jan Vlček, and Karel Dlouhý streets in Prague 18. Ke Kaplance in Prague 6 will be renamed for better orientation. The city council approves the naming or renaming of public sites. Suggestions can be submitted by anyone. Proposals are initially discussed by the appropriate district’s city council. It is referred to the municipal localities commission after being approved by its administration. If they agree, it is then considered by the Prague City Council. According to the law, public spaces cannot be named after live people. In solidarity of Russia-invaded Ukraine, the city renamed a section of Coronation Street in front of the Russian embassy as Ukrainian Heroes during the previous administration. Last year,...
The lower house of the Czech parliament approved legislation on Friday requiring state budgets to devote spending worth at least 2% of gross domestic product to defense starting next year. European countries have accelerated their defense spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as many capitals have not yet met NATO’s 2%-of-GDP financing commitment. In the 2023 budget, defense spending is planned at 1.52% of GDP. The bill estimates that an extra 21.5 billion crowns (almost $1 billion) over the government’s mid-term fiscal outlook would be needed in the 2024 central state budget for the defense spending to reach the required level. The Czech Republic, a NATO member since 1999, has sought to build up and modernize its armed forces after years of underspending, and after supplying hundreds of pieces of heavy military equipment to Ukraine over the past year. The country signed in December a non-binding memorandum with Sweden for the delivery of more than 200 CV90 infantry fighting vehicles. It has also been in negotiations with the United States to buy 24 F-35 jets. However, the additional spending may complicate the center-right government’s efforts to cut the budget deficit by 70 billion crowns in 2024 from...
The prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have called for the world to “stand by Ukraine without qualification or reservation” in an article for Foreign Affairs magazine. Mateusz Morawicki, Petr Fiala and Eduard Heger wrote in the bimonthly that if Ukraine loses its war against Russia, the rest of Central Europe could be next. To prevent this, they said, Ukraine must be supported until Russian forces “withdraw from its territory entirely, putting a definitive end to the Kremlin’s revanchism and imperialism.” Anything less, they asserted, would be “like issuing an open invitation to all authoritarian lunatics who think that it is OK to invade their neighbors.” The three heads of government argued that a frozen conflict would not be a viable option as this is Moscow’s preferred modus operandi for buying time so it can “regroup and rebuild its forces while continuing to wage political warfare and export its imperial ideology,” something they said the Kremlin had been doing for years. The prime ministers wrote that their countries have hundreds of years of experience of Russia’s “revanchism, totalitarianism, occupation, deportations and massacres,” which is why they had been sounding the alarm well in advance of Moscow’s February...
Brno was liberated exactly 75 years ago, on April 26, 1945, by the Red Army led by Marshal Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky in the Bratislava-Brno operation.
Ignazio La Russa, the controversial head of the Italian Senate from the far-right Brothers of Italy party, will arrive in Prague on Tuesday. According to ANSA, his stay in the Czech Republic will include a visit to the memorial at Terezín, which was a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. La Russa, who will attend a conference of EU parliamentary presidents in Prague, will also lay a wreath at the Jan Palach memorial. He arrives in Prague on Italian Liberation Day, when Italians commemorate the anniversary of the end of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime in 1945. “I was struck by the fact that the president of the Senate Ignazio La Russa goes to Prague to pay homage to Jan Palach, who is certainly a hero of freedom, but there are 364 other days a year to do it”. Then he added: “Tomorrow in the country where there was the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine or the massacre of Marzabotto or Sant’Anna di Stazzema it would have been more logical to bring a flower there”, he concluded. The Nazi murdered 335 men and boys at the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome, 770 people at Marzabotto outside Bologna, and 560 people including...
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