More than 600 e-mail boxes of the government ANO party, including its management, are operated by the Agrofert holding, according to iROZHLAS.cz. The movement’s email runs on the same network as dozens of other e-mail servers of companies from the holding, such as Precheza, Penama, Deza and Fatra. In 2017, the chairman of the movement and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš invested the holding in his trust funds and claims that he no longer has anything to do with the company. ANO spokesman Martin Vodička said that the movement pays for the service of Agrofert. Both the chairman of the movement, Andrej Babiš, and hundreds of other people associated with ANO use the e-mail box operated by Agrofert. “At the moment, we have set up 605 e-mail boxes, which are used by the presidency, committee, regional chairmen and managers, employees and some other collaborators,” spokesman for the ANO Martin Vodička specified for Radiožurnál. According to Vodička, the movement orders the service from Agrofert on the basis of an IT support contract and pays for it monthly. “So this is a standard business relationship and we had no reason to change the service provider, which has been working properly for a long time,”...
Overall, 152 out of 169 Afghans brought on evacuation flights two weeks ago to the Czech Republic applied for asylum or subsidiary protection in the country. Others have a different form of residence in the Czech Republic, the Czech Ministry of the Interior announced on Monday. At the end of the two-week quarantine, the applicants will relocate from the facility managed by the Ministry of Defense to the facility of the Ministry of the Interior. “The so-called admission procedure is currently underway for evacuees who have applied for international protection. This includes, for example, the administration of the application, medical examinations, or the collection of fingerprints,” said Adam Rözler from the ministry’s press department. He added that the admission procedure usually takes several days up to a few weeks and that applicants are in closed state facilities during that time. Asylum and subsidiary protection vary in duration. Asylum is granted indefinitely, while subsidiary protection is granted for a well-defined period, after which the reasons for granting it are re-examined. The authorities have up to six months to process an application for international protection. “Applicants have the right to remain in the facility of the Ministry of the Interior during that...
As per the new protective measure implemented by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, Prague Airport, the Foreign Police of the Czech Republic and the Customs Administration of the Czech Republic will strengthen the control of the currently valid conditions for entry into the country. Together, the parties thus respond to the gradually increasing traffic at Prague Airport and the possibility to visit the country for tourist activities by foreigners. From 1 September 2021, the arrival procedure for all passengers flying to Václav Havel Airport Prague will be adjusted. Until further notice, the changes implemented at both Prague Airport terminals will affect tourists as well as citizens of the Czech Republic and the EU+ countries returning to the Czech Republic. The airport continues to encourage passengers to thoroughly review the implemented rules in advance. Before their departure to Prague, they should have prepared, and ideally printed out, all documents, arrival forms, and confirmations of non-infectivity, if required. “We are coordinating the new model with representatives of the Ministry of Health and other security forces present at the airport. We are also increasing our personnel capacity and reinforcing the technical equipment to speed up the entire check-in process on...
The City Hall of Prague 3 commissioned a project for the transformation of Jiří z Lobkovic Square near the Olšany Cemeteries. The whole process is calculated to be worth CZK 7 million and it will be executed by the architectural studio Perspektiv that won the competition for the square’s transformation last year. The decision was made by the city council earlier in the week. The square is located at the Olšanské hřbitovy tram stop and it includes a tram loop. According to the approved document, Perspektiv, the architectural studio that won, has to finalize and complete all the necessary documentation in the next four months. A playground and a fountain According to the winning design, the space will combine the features and the feel of the original square with a new proper park. The lush green area will be preserved in the middle, and it’ll be perfect for walking dogs or picnicking. Most of the square’s current trees will be left untouched. In front of the primary school bordering the square on the south side will be added a new space for children. It will be partially covered with parquet floors, a fountain and three playgrounds for kids of different...
The keynote speaker of this year’s SWCSummit, which takes place in Prague on October 5th and 6th, is computer engineering legend Steve Wozniak. Forty-five years ago, he stood side by side with Steve Jobs at the beginning of the Apple brand. Later, his groundbreaking desktop computer changed the development of the IT industry forever. Visitors to the event will not only see him live but will even have the opportunity to ask him a question. Tickets are available at swcsummit.com. However, due to the pandemic, SWCSummit’s capacity will be limited to a few hundred people, so early purchase is quite recommended. In addition to Woz’s performance, the program’s highlight will also be the traditional continental finals of the Startup World Cup. The victory awaits a startup that will rise from the pool of past regional rounds or associated startup competitions. The winner will be rewarded with an investment of $500,000 and the title “European startup champion”. This year, we are upgrading the prestige of the European finales to an even higher level than before as we broaden our portfolio and we also patronize various other competitions such as the Czech Startup Challenge, Creative Business Cup, PowerMOTION, and others. “SWCSummit thus...
The complete reconstruction of the Prague metro station Jiřího z Poděbrad starts today (September 1st), in part to replace the Soviet-era ‘Leningrad’ escalators, install lifts and provide barrier-free access to platforms. The last phase of repairs will be the replacement of escalators. Because the Jiřího z Poděbrad station has only one exit, after January 2023 it will be closed for 10 months and metro trains will not stop there The repair will cost DPP CZK 1.29 billion and the work should take over two years. New elevators will be put in for barrier-free access to the station. The first ones will take passengers from the train platform to the transfer corridor, and from there the other elevators will go up to Vinohradská Street. Most of the work will take place during normal operation, which will be interrupted only when the station ceiling is breached. Workers will also renovate or replace wiring and lighting, remove leaks, replace air conditioning and repair damaged parts of tiles. Geotechnical monitoring of the excavated work, ie monitoring of the subsoil, will also be performed. “The planned modernization is one of the largest we have undertaken in the last few years in terms of scope, length...
IKEA celebrates a milestone this week, 30 years since opening its first Czech store on September 5th in Prague on Budějovická. The grand opening took place at seven o’clock in the morning and was a big social event, which was also attended by the then Minister of Finance Václav Klaus. During the month of September, IKEA will offer special discounts, a festive menu, and birthday packages. “The store was often completely full and there were long queues at the box office. In the beginning, IKEA was perceived extremely prestigious on our market, important personalities and celebrities came here,” recalls Lenka Žižková, a university teacher and publicist who has long been involved in housing culture and design. “Czechs were visiting the store not only when they needed to buy something for the apartment, but also to get inspired and to improve their mood,” she adds. The chain moved from Budějovická in 1996 to its own department store in Zličín. In 1998, it opened a second department store in Brno, three years later in Ostrava, and the newest of the department stores, in Prague’s Černý Most, welcomed its first customers in 2004. Recently, IKEA has launched its English version of the website,...
“An extension of Prague’s public transport” – this is how representatives of Nextbike, the largest domestic bike-sharing company, talk about their upcoming project with the city administration. The project was put in charge of the organizer of the Prague public transport Ropid, who after the completion of the test phase will evaluate the interest of passengers and propose further steps. According to the city management, shared bicycles are a beneficial complement to public transport. “At short and medium distances, it is the most environmentally friendly individual means of transport,” says one of the representative. The aim of the project is to verify the interest of Prague public transport passengers in the use of shared bicycles and to offer Lítačka owners another possibility of transport in the metropolis over shorter distances. There are two main rental services: Rekola with 600 bikes and Nextbike with 700 bicycles. If you are interested in renting an e-bike, there are two operators with them in Prague: Bolt and Homeport. However, the idea of including shared bikes in the public transport system is already receiving criticism from Praguers. At the beginning of August, due to tariff changes, those passengers who were used to using one-off tickets when traveling by public transport...
The European Commission told the Czech Republic on Monday it would halt the payment of some EU subsidies until the country tightens its laws to guard against conflicts of interest. The EU executive concluded in an audit released in April that Prime Minister Andrej Babis was in a conflict of interest as final owner of a business empire, mainly under the Agrofert group of companies, that receives EU funding. Babis has repeatedly insisted he has not broken any laws, having moved his business holdings into two trust funds. But on Monday, the Commission said it would not reimburse any spending on EU projects claimed by companies held by trust funds for now. “As long as all the recommendations formulated in the (audit) report are not carried out, we are advising the Czech authorities not to declare expenses that are due for companies whose beneficial owners are trust funds. It’s a warning,” the Commission said. While spending by Agrofert is already not being reimbursed, the Commission feels the issue might be wider, an EU official said. “There is real concern that the risks that surfaced around Agrofert may be replicated with other companies,” the official said. The Commission also asked Czech...
Receiving packages from outside the European Union will become a little easier for customers and retailers in the Czech Republic. Czech Post (Česká pošta) has announced that it will cooperate with online marketplace Wish. The cooperation with Wish is an expansion of Czech Post’s effort to streamline the processing of shipments from China. Wish is a US-based online marketplace that brings together sellers and buyers. Sellers who list their products on Wish send the items directly to consumers, the platform does not stock the products or manage returns. Most products available through the app come from China and other overseas contributors. “After concluding an agreement with AliExpress in 2020, another business portal with which Czech Post will cooperate is the Wish platform”, said Czech Post in a press release. The cooperation is an effort to reduce some of the red tape associated with taxes and custom duties. New VAT rules The Czech Post cooperation with Wish is established after the VAT rules changed within the European Union. AliExpress recently began collecting VAT on its own and pays the tax to the European Union through the new Impost One-Stop Shop which the EU launched on the first of July this year. As of that date, shipments below 22 euros...
The Czech government will offer a booster COVID-19 vaccine shot from Sept. 20 to any previously vaccinated person, Health Minister Adam Vojtech said on Monday. The Czech Republic, a country of 10.7 million, has been one of the countries worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as measured by deaths per population, with over 30,400 victims. Nearly 1.68 million Czechs have contracted the virus, and many more are estimated to have caught it without being tested. The government’s coronavirus task force said on Twitter that the boosters were strongly recommended for people over 60 but would also be available for all who had completed previous vaccinations, either by a two-dose or single-dose schemes. The government will use Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for the boosters for those who completed a regular vaccination at least eight months earlier, Vojtech told a news conference shown live on television. As of Monday, 5.73 million people have received at least one shot of a two-dose vaccine, mostly from Pfizer/BioNTech, and another 197,254 received the one-dose vaccine made by Johnson and Johnson. Separately, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Czech Television the government will offer financial bonuses to general practitioners who convince more people over 65 to...
A Czech court has ruled in favour of Czech ticket seller Kiwi.com against Ryanair in a lingering dispute over Kiwi’s practices for handling passenger data. Ryanair had threatened to reject boarding passes issued by Kiwi.com, but that was unjustified according to Constitutional Court judge Kateřina Šimáčková. Ryanair took Kiwi.com to court over its handling of passengers’ personal data, which Ryanair claimed prevented it from contacting passengers in case of flight changes. The Irish carrier wanted Kiwi.com to be compelled to share more passenger data. But the Constitutional Court has now overturned an earlier ruling by the Regional Court in Brno (and then upheld on appeal at the High Court in Olomouc) which had instructed Kiwi.com to adjust information according to Ryanair’s terms and conditions, and to share customers’ email and residence addresses as well as their payment details. The Constitutional Court ruled that the earlier judgement ran contrary to the freedom to conduct business. Ryanair wants travellers to book tickets only on the Ryanair website, and not through third parties, stating that this is the only way that consumers are guaranteed the lowest rates. However, Kiwi.com believes it should be allowed to sell Ryanair tickets, both individually and in a composite trip. It also uses...
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