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. Goodyear, a US tire manufacturer, must pay Czech inventor František Hrabal USD 65 million (CZK 1.6 billion). On Monday, a court in the US state of Ohio ruled on the matter. According to the court, the company appropriated the Czech inventor’s self-inflating tires. Public health insurance will cost CZK 471.7 billion crowns in the Czech Republic next year, according to the latest estimates from the Ministry of Health. The ministry expects that CZK 464.6 billion will be received in health insurance payments in 2023, leaving a deficit of CZK 7.1 billion to be covered from the reserve funds of the health insurance companies. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský will meet with ministers from the Visegrad Group countries, the Bucharest Nine, and the Foreign Affairs Council on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly currently taking place at the UN Headquarters in New York. The member states of the European Union formally approved a loan of five billion euros for Ukraine on Tuesday, the Czech News Agency reports....
The EU Council approved the plan to provide Ukraine with additional 5 billion euro in the form of macro-financial assistance (MFA). EU finance minister approved the move at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) Council meeting earlier this month in Prague, the Council reminded in a statement on Tuesday. The body pointed out that the latest MFA package “complements other EU support to Ukraine in the humanitarian, development customs and defence fields.” Zbyněk Stanjura, Czech Minister of Finance, noted that the EU supports Ukraine. “We deliver on our promises and help ensure that the Ukrainian state and its key infrastructure can continue to function despite Russia’s war of aggression,” he added and announced “at the next ECOFIN meetings, I will push for a swift agreement on the provision of the remaining 3 billion euro.” The Council stressed that the latest MFA aid will be provided “in the form of highly concessional long-term loans…. it constitutes the second stage in the implementation of the planned full Union’s exceptional macro-financial assistance to Ukraine for up to 9 billion euro, announced by the European Commission in its communication of 18 May.” Risk absorption included The body pointed out that its latest decision provides the...
A new opinion poll suggests that the populist ANO party of former prime minister Andrej Babiš is most popular among voters just a week ahead of municipal and senate elections. Conducted by the STEM agency for CNN Prime News, the poll which was published on Sunday found that Babiš’ enjoys 30% of voter confidence, followed by the anti-EU Freedom and Democracy Party (ID) with 14.3%. “The Freedom and Democracy Party is gaining ground at a time of heated moods and uncertain prospects thanks to its long-standing anti-establishment basis,” the STEM agency commented. Both parties are very critical of the EU, particularly amid the current energy crisis. They favour nationalistic and populistic solutions while promising lower living costs to their potential voters. The ruling party of Civic Democrats (ECR) got only 14.2%. Their coalition partners, Pirates (Greens/EFA), reached 9.4%, but other parties of the five-party coalition government would barely reach the 5% threshold to enter the Czech Parliament. On the other hand, the ANO movement is preferred among Czech voters over 60 and those with a lower education rate. ANO is also very popular in small towns, while the governing parties are more successful in big cities and among people with...
The Prague City Council yesterday approved the purchase of up to 200 new trams. The Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) has been conducting market consultations in the past months. This is the first tender for the supply of new trams in Prague in 17 years. DPP is calling for 30-meter-long, air-conditioned, low-floor trams “adapted to Prague’s specific conditions”. Price, power consumption, warranty period, and life cycle costs will all play a role in the tender. Prague will order 40 vehicles to be delivered by the end of 2026 at an estimated CZK 2.42 billion. Up to 160 additional vehicles are to be purchased under a framework contract. The growing tram network and the need to replace old T3 trams have caused the need for new vehicles, according to the city administration. Prague’s tram network is currently undergoing unprecedented development. DPP has started three new construction projects this year. The Sidliste Barrandov – Holyne line was completed in spring and a tender for the continuation of the line has been announced. Other projects are in preparation. The Prague tramway network consists of 142.4 km of track, 882 tram vehicles (one of the largest fleets in the world) and 26 daytime routes, 2 historical...
Despite a high number of tourists deciding to visit the capital city of the Czech Republic, Prague, data show that heritage sites, as well as tourist attractions, have still not reached the levels registered during the pre-pandemic period. Of all the tourist attractions that the country has, it has been revealed that only two of them have reached the 2019 figures. The Old Town hall was visited by around 40 per cent fewer people so far this year compared to the same period in 2019. Prague Castel, the Petřín Tower and the Powder Tower also registered a lower number of visitors. The number of visitors that visited Prague Castle in July was around 50 per cent less than the number of visitors in July 2019. The spokesperson of Prague City Tourism, Klára Malá, said that the tourist attractions have not been registering a high number of visitors as there is a lack of arrivals from Southeast Asia and Russia. The spokesperson explained that Asians are not visiting Czechia due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in their home countries. As for Russians, she said that they are not visiting Czechia due to the war in Ukraine and the restrictions that have...
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 first ship carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) for Czechia has arrived at the Dutch port of Eemshaven and is getting ready to lay anchor, ČEZ spokesman Roman Gazdík told the Czech News Agency on Monday. The ship arrived from the United States and carries 100 million cubic metres of gas, The Council of Prague City Hall on Monday approved a plan to purchase up to 200 new trams and asked the Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) to commission the relevant tender, website Zdopravy.cz reports. The government plans to raise pensions by CZK 825 in January to an average monthly total of CZK 19,500, Czech Radio reported on Monday citing the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The increase should see the average pension be equivalent to 49.5 percent of the average wage in the country, the ministry states. In a televised address yesterday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called on Czechs to use gas and electric power prudently to save their own money and help lower state expenditures, while also helping...
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called on Czechs to handle gas and electricity in a rational manner to save their own money and help lower state expenditures, while also helping the Czech economy. He added that the state would set a positive example by economising on the use of energy. The Czech government’s recently decided to cap the prices of energy for households, small and medium-sized enterprises and public institutions. “Over CZK 100 billion is involved, which we have to get from somewhere. We don’t want to borrow money once again, as previous cabinets did repeatedly,” Fiala said. The government is also discussing options to compensate large high-net-worth Czech companies and industrial enterprises for lost profits due to rising energy costs. Besides using the planned windfall tax, targeting extraordinary profits among energy companies, the state should finance the electricity and gas price caps from increased dividends from state-controlled companies, including the CEZ energy provider, Fiala said. The soaring price of energy in late August is a direct consequence of Russia’s economic war against the West, said Fiala. “Its goal is to threaten the social certainties of people in European countries, paralyse our economies, undermine citizens’ trust in the state and democracy itself, and...
A pilot project for the sale of long-term storage products has been launched in five branches of Czech Post. Visitors can now find shelves with drinks, sweets, chips and other snacks. The project takes place in four post offices in Prague and one in the Central Bohemian region. “This is a trial stage of the project which is based on our business strategy. It was preceded by a client survey that received positive feedback. We see in this format an excellent commercial opportunity. Thanks to the commission form we act as intermediaries and only provide premises”, – said the representative of the company Ivo Vysoudil. The post office greatly reduced the sale of additional goods at its branches in 2014, when the then head of the Ministry of the Interior compared them to convenience stores. Critics of the new project mainly raise their eyebrows at the choice of assortment. The Czech state, which on the one hand pays for campaigns to promote a healthier diet and at the same time spends considerable sums on the treatment of obesity, is now allowing the post offices to sell sugary drinks, biscuits and chips.
The Village of the Year in the Czech Republic is a national competition held since 1995, announced annually by the Ministry of Regional Development. Its aim is to promote the “restoration” and “development” of the Czech countryside through communal projects carried out by villagers themselves. Each year hundreds of Czech and Moravian villages enter the competition. Being focused on the countryside, the notion of rurality is one of the competition’s defining features. Kostelni Lhota in Central Bohemia has been named Czech village 2022. It has about 900 inhabitants. Between Poděbrady and Sadská, along the road that used to be called Slezká (Silesian) or Náchodská (according to the town of Náchod) there are four villages with Lhota as part of their name. They are as follows: Přední Lhota (Front Lhota), Vrbová Lhota (Willow Lhota), Písková Lhota (Sandy Lhota) and Kostelní Lhota (Church Lhota) respectively. The dominant building of Kostelní Lhota is naturally the local church that – together with the vicarage and school – comprises the historical village center. All of the above Lhotas were established in the second half of the 14th century. There used to be deep forest in this area before, as well as a rather wide-spread marshland...
The foreign minister of the Czech Republic, current holder of the presidency of the Council of the EU, called for a “special international tribunal” after evidence of torture on civilians emerged from a mass burial site in Izyum in northeastern Ukraine. “Russia left behind mass graves of hundreds of shot and tortured people in the Izyum area. In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent,” Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský wrote in a Twitter thread on Saturday. “We stand for the punishment of all war criminals. I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression,” he said. Izyum was one of Moscow’s main strongholds in the area until September 10, when a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive aimed at recapturing the Kharkiv region drove Russian troops out of the city. Following the discovery of a mass grave in a nearby wood containing the remains of over 440 people — mostly thought to be civilians — Ukrainian forces started exhuming the bodies on Friday. According to Ukrainian officials, some of the bodies recovered so far show signs of torture. The chief of the prosecutor’s office for the Kharkiv region told the Reuters...
The Krkonoše mountains located in the north of the Czech Republic recorded the first snowfall of the 2022-23 season on Sunday night. According to pictures from webcams, the highest point of the country – the Sněžka Mountain – is also slightly covered in snow.
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 architect Vlado Milunic, who was born in Croatia but spent almost all his life in Czechia, has died at the age of 81. He is best-known for co-designing Prague’s now iconic Dancing Building with the American architect Frank Gehry. A freshly published opinion poll by the STEM agency suggests ANO would have won elections in September with 30 percent of the vote. The survey puts Tomio Okamura’s anti-EU Freedom and Democracy Party second on 14.3 percent, just ahead of government leaders the Civic Democrats on 14.2 percent. A long-standing employee of the Czech Foreign Ministry cooperated with the Russian intelligence service (SVR) and leaked secret information to them, according to reports in Denik N on Thursday. The official had to leave the ministry, wrote Denik N, corroborated by the Aktualne.cz and Respekt.cz news sites. According to Median’s August election model, Andrej Babiš and Petr Pavel would advance to the second round of the presidential election, with Danuše Nerudová finishing third. Although Babiš is leading, he would lose in a duel with...
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