The Senate of the Czech Republic has adopted a resolution on supporting Ukraine’s accession to NATO under the fast-track procedure. Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports. “Yesterday (June 1 – ed.) the Senate of the Czech Republic adopted an important resolution on Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” he wrote. Stefanchuk wrote that the adopted resolution, in particular, notes Ukraine’s demonstration of determination and readiness to defend Euro-Atlantic values. According to him, the document says that Ukraine’s victory in the war with the Russian Federation and Ukraine’s accession to NATO are in the interests of the Czech Republic’s security. The Verkhovna Rada chairman also noted that the resolution emphasizes that the Czech Republic supports the training of the Ukrainian military, the provision of weapons and other military equipment to Ukraine in coordination with its allies. In addition, Stefanchuk added that the Senate of the Czech Republic emphasizes in the resolution that the NATO summit in Vilnius should confirm a strong political commitment to Ukraine, because Ukraine’s accession to NATO will significantly strengthen the military potential of the Alliance and preserve the international order based on UN rules and regulations. The...
If the Czech Republic held a referendum on leaving the EU today, 63% of Czechs would vote to remain, a fresh survey conducted in one of the EU’s most eurosceptic countries found. The survey was conducted by the Europeum Institute and analytical agency STEM even though no such referendum is currently on the political agenda. Indeed, Czechs are generally optimistic about the EU, with 56% of respondents expressing this opinion. Still, they remain sceptical about introducing the common euro currency, as less than one in five said they favoured adoption, the Czech News Agency reported. Besides examining Czechs’ attitudes towards the EU, the survey also found that most Czechs still support welcoming Ukrainian refugees. According to Interior Ministry figures, there are currently some 325,000 in the country. Still, Jaromír Mazák, director of the STEM research agency, believes that while support for accepting Ukrainian refugees has been stable over time, it is quite fragile. “More than half of the public is concerned about the negative impact of migration from Ukraine on the quality of public services and the economy as a whole,” said Mazák, as quoted by the Czech News Agency. The survey found that 44% of Czechs are willing to help even at...
The Czech government on Wednesday cancelled Soviet-era decrees that granted the Russian embassy free use of land in Prague and other cities, a further step in a more than two-year diplomatic spat with Moscow worsened by the war in Ukraine. Prague had in 2021 accused Russian intelligence agents of being behind explosions at an arms depot in the Czech Republic in 2014, leading it to drastically reduce staff at the Russian embassy, then one of central Europe’s biggest missions and which continues to operate at a greatly reduced capacity. On Wednesday, the centre-right government rescinded orders granting Russia the use of dozens of plots of lands in the 1970s and 1980s by the country’s then Communist rulers. The Russian embassy in Prague did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Russia will now have to pay leases to use of the land, the foreign ministry said. “We overturned government decisions taken under the barrels of Russian tanks after the occupation of our country,” European Affairs Minister Martin Dvorak said on Twitter, referring the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion that tightened Communist rule in the country. “Unauthorised profits from the use of these land plots cannot be allowed to support the...
Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive to win back territory occupied by Russia has a good chance of success but may bring high casualties if Russia uses its prepared defences well, Czech President and former NATO general Petr Pavel said on Friday. Pavel, 61, said in an interview that Ukraine needs support for NATO and European Union entry but joining either will be a lengthy process, though talks on the EU accession could start this year. Pavel, who was Czech army chief and also the principal military adviser to the NATO secretary-general in 2015-2018, said Ukraine would eventually get Western fighter jets it has been calling for but it was impossible to deliver them in time for the upcoming offensive, and there were higher priorities such as ammunition. “There is certainly high hope that the Ukrainian counteroffensive will be successful, because Ukraine is motivated, well prepared, its troops are experienced and certainly do not succumb to such deficiencies as the Russian army,” Pavel said at Prague Castle, the seat of the Czech presidency. The Russian army had severe problems in logistics and morale, but a collapse of defences should not be expected, he said. “Russia has had time to prepare a relatively high-quality...
Czech inflation slowed further in April to a headline rate of 12.7%, its lowest since March 2022, data showed on Thursday, possibly taking pressure off a central bank that has been weighing another interest rate hike. On a month-on-month basis, overall consumer prices fell 0.2%. The figures come after the Czech National Bank last week nearly renewed an interest rate hiking cycle that has been on hold since the middle of 2022. It voted 4-3 for stability, while those backing tighter policy had concerns over wage developments and loose fiscal policy. With the state budget deficit rising at a record pace so far in 2023, the government is set to detail a budget consolidation plan to cut the 2024 deficit by around 70 billion crowns ($3.30 billion) later on Thursday. Markets are pricing in little chance the central bank will raise interest rates again, after its 2021-22 tightening cycle lifted the base rate by 675 basis points to 7.00%. Analysts said April inflation data backed a view of no more rate hikes. “Inflation could fall even faster as cost conditions are improving,” Banka Creditas economist Petr Dufek said, citing easing gas prices and weakened demand as examples. Food prices rose...
The Czech Republic’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in April, in line with expectations, figures from the labor office showed Wednesday. The unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in April, down from 3.7 percent in March. In the same month last year, the jobless rate was 3.3 percent. There were 261,700 unemployed people in April, compared to 273,500 a month ago. The labor office reported that by the end of April, job offices had registered a total of 284,530 vacancies. According to the latest Eurostat data, the Czech Republic still has the lowest unemployment rate in the entire European Union. Youth unemployment In March 2023, 2.763 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU, of whom 2.264 million were in the euro area. In March 2023, the youth unemployment rate was 14.3% both in the EU and in the euro area, down from respectively 14.5% and 14.4% in the previous month. Compared with February 2023, youth unemployment decreased by 33 thousand in the EU and by 14 thousand in the euro area. Compared with March 2022, youth unemployment increased by 105 thousand in the EU and by 91 thousand in the euro area. Unemployment by sex In March 2023, the unemployment rate...
Czech President Petr Pavel has said he supports the creation of an international war crimes tribunal to hold Russia accountable for its atrocities in Ukraine, he said in a video address posted on Twitter on May 9. “It is important to investigate these crimes, which is why I unequivocally support the creation of the tribunal,” Pavel said. “It is a key step on the road to both peace and justice,” he went on to say. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke at an online summit of the Core Group international coalition of May 9 dedicated to the issue of establishing a special tribunal to investigate numerous Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine. All 37 participants of the summit “confirmed their resolve to hold Russia’s top leadership accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote later on Twitter. The European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have also voted to support the creation of a special international tribunal. On Monday, May 8, Mr. Pavel and other leading state representatives honoured the victims of the Second World War at Prague’s Vítkov memorial on the occasion of the anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. In his speech, the president compared the conflict to...
In March of this year, the price of sugar in the Czech Republic rose by 98% compared to 2022, making it the most expensive in the European Union. Monthly data shows that this increase has been steady since August 2021, with inflation rates for February and March 2023 reaching 61%. This means that the average sugar prices in these two months were 61% higher than during the same months of the previous year. Czechia, Estonia, Poland, Germany, and Latvia observed the highest annual inflation rates for sugar, with an increase of 98%, 97%, 82%, 72%, and 70% respectively, while substantial, though lesser, increases were also recorded in Luxembourg (19%), Belgium (35%), Bulgaria (36%), and Ireland (37%). Hungary had the smallest increase in sugar prices by 17%. The rise in sugar prices is partly due to gas prices demanded by sugar mills during their production process. According to Eurostat, the gas price in the Czech Republic was the highest in the EU during the latter half of the previous year, increasing by 231% YoY, while it was only by about 30% in Hungary. A limitation on sugar prices imposed by the Hungarian government as part of its anti-inflation strategy earlier last...
The Czech economy probably pulled out of recession in the first quarter with slight growth driven by trade, preliminary data indicated, although high inflation continued to bite. Gross domestic product in the Czech Republic increased by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter, defying a Reuters poll forecast for a 0.1% drop. GDP shrank by a less-than-expected 0.2% year-on-year, the data showed. The Czech Republic is the first economy in central Europe to report first-quarter GDP data, but all have felt the strain of high inflation, driven by steep energy price rises last year. At the end of 2022, the Czech and Hungarian economies slipped into technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of declining quarter-on-quarter GDP. “So it is confirmed, the recession really ended (last quarter),” Komercni Banka economist Jan Vejmelek said in a Twitter post after the data. The Czech statistics office did not give details of the preliminary data but said external demand buoyed the economy while household consumption decreased. Updated data is due on May 30. Inflation has surged to double-digit rates across central Europe but looks to have passed a peak. Interest rates remain elevated and central banks are not in a hurry to ease policy until price growth is...
Ukraine’s EU accession could begin soon if all EU member states can be persuaded, said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky after President Petr Pavel vowed to push for accession talks to be opened by the end of this year. Pavel previously said he would be pushing for this in line with the position of Czech diplomacy, which Kyiv also seeks. “I can imagine it, but there must be consensus in the entire EU-27,” Lipavsky said. However, many EU member states are sceptical, and Czechia is trying to allay their fears. Ukraine would have to meet all the conditions and “cannot enjoy any reliefs” in this respect, Lipavsky said. Ukraine was granted candidate status for EU membership in 2022. It received seven recommendations from Brussels last year that it should follow to move closer to membership in the bloc. European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said in January this year that Ukraine had made good progress in implementing those recommendations related to domestic politics and the judiciary, such as the fight against corruption and the procedure for approving judges of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court. Czechia, in cooperation with other allies, will seek ways to increase the supply of ammunition to Ukraine, Czech...
The Treaty of Accession regulated the EU’s enlargement to allow 10 eastern and southern European countries to become members of the European Union on 1 May 2004. The countries joining the European Union on 1 May 2004 were Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, This largest round of enlargement in the EU’s history was marked by public celebrations at many border crossings and in the European capitals. The “eastern enlargement project” had begun a long time before: in the early 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, the EU concluded Association Agreements with many central and eastern European states with the aim of liberalising trade, developing guidelines for political dialogue and harmonising national laws and regulations with EU law. “We are bringing into the EU family 10 new member states and 75 million new EU citizens,” said on that day European Commission President Romano Prodi. “Five decades after our great project of European integration began, we are celebrating the fact that Europeans are no longer kept apart by artificial ideological barriers. “We share the same destiny and we are stronger when we act together. I urge all Europeans to join in celebrations of this astonishing achievement.” The moves towards accession...
The Presidents of the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Petr Pavel and Zuzana Čaputová – are in Ukraine. They witnessed the devastating effects of the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities. Czech President Petr Pavel stressed that – as a former military man – he did not expect to see evidence of planned and massive attacks on civilian targets in Europe. Shocked by the visit to Borodianka Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová wrote on Facebook that “the shameful attack on Ukrainian cities, including Uman and Dnieper, which resulted in the deaths of innocent people, reminds us that we cannot look away”. Czech media point out that Pavel’s and Čaputová’s visit takes place right after the night Russian rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities, in which at least a dozen people were killed. In Borodianka, the Czech President said that the sight of the ruined city reminded him of what he had seen as a military man during the war in former Yugoslavia. “I thought I would never see it again – so close and especially in Europe. The number of attacks on civilian objects shows that they are intentional. A navigation error can happen from time to time, but with this number, it’s...
Don’t have an account? Register
Already have an account? Log In
How Would You Like to Promote Your Business? PR ArticleDisplay bannersVideo productionNewsletter adsJob ListingsInfluencer Marketing
Your Email
We will come back to you within 24 hours with our proporsal
