The first summit meeting of the new EU-plus forum is to take place in Prague, as the Czech Republic currently holds the rotating EU presidency, just ahead of an informal meeting of EU leaders on 7 October. “Invitations will be sent out soon” for the summit, scheduled to take place on 6-7 October in Prague, with leaders of the six Western Balkan countries, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan expected to receive them, the EU official told reporters. The idea for the new forum, a brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron, is to provide a platform for political dialogue and cooperation while including countries aspiring to join the EU and those happy remaining outside the bloc. The main aim is “to have a political discussion on strategic issues of common interest for the European continent,” the EU official said, adding that the main issues will include Russia’s war against Ukraine, the energy crisis and Europe’s economic situation. Macron had pitched the idea earlier in May, amid the debate whether to grant Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova EU candidate status, as an option that would allow those EU neighbouring countries currently outside the EU framework to be more closely...
The Czech government, led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, presented a plan to relieve citizens from unprecedentedly high energy prices, with ministers finally moving to put a cap on the country’s electricity and gas prices. At the same time, proposals for price caps also came from Brussels. Jakub Kajzler, the advisor to the prime minister, spoke in an interview for Echo24 about how the Czech and European paths are related, who will not be spared by taxation, and how the Czech consumer will benefit from this. Answering the question as to why the EU price cap being lower than the one approved by the Czech government, Kajzler said that the EU price cap is a reference figure that allows governments to tax revenues from sales for prices higher than €180 per megawatt-hour. The number, however, does not say anything about what the electricity price for the consumers should be. He indicated that the European Commission is only saying that governments can use the money from the taxed income of some producers to compensate the final consumers, i.e., citizens and entrepreneurs. The Czech and European price caps are thus not comparable. A large part of the electricity that is currently being supplied was already...
The Czech government plans to provide 60 billion crowns in aid to companies hit by soaring energy prices, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Wednesday. The Czech Republic, like other European Union nations, is grappling with soaring energy prices following a sharp reduction in natural gas flows from Russia amid Western sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The package adds to a cap on power prices for households and the public sector announced on Monday. The Czech government agreed larger companies would draw from a 30 billion crown package, and a further 30 billion should be made available for smaller companies within a framework proposed by the European Commission, Fiala told reporters. Aid schemes in EU countries need to be aligned with a bloc-wide agreement expected to be based on a proposal by the Commission, which is seeking more than $140 billion from energy firms to help shield households and businesses from soaring prices. Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said the government would, on top of EU plans for a windfall levy on companies in the fossil fuels sector, also aim for a windfall tax on some banks, as well as electricity producers and traders. “The firms will receive...
Former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has gone on trial over fraud accusations connected to a two million euro European Union subsidy that has marred his political career for the past five years. Prosecutors allege that Babis, owner of a chemicals, farming, food and media empire, now held in a trust, illegally tapped the subsidy to build a conference centre near Prague before he formed his anti-establishment ANO party in 2011. Babis has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said the case against him is political. “I am glad all will see this, my arguments against this untrue charge,” Babis said as he entered the court building on Monday, according to Czech Television footage. “It was of course politically motivated criminal investigation.” Potential presidential hopeful Babis, 68, is a potential presidential hopeful in an election early next year and still heads parliament’s biggest party even though he sits in opposition after five parties combined in an election last year to remove him from government. Babis may face a jail term if found guilty, although prosecutors asked for a suspended sentence and a fine. The trial is expected to last into at least mid-October, and any verdict is subject to appeals. The...
Prime Minister Petr Fiala is set to attend late Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, president, Miloš Zeman told radio Frekvence 1 on Sunday. The funeral will be held on September 19, according to Reuters. President Zeman said that he had been forbidden by doctors to fly due to medical reasons and that he therefore asked the prime minister to attend instead. Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, and the nation’s figurehead for seven decades, died at her home in Scotland aged 96 on Thursday. The Queen’s state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey in central London, after which the Queen’s coffin will be taken to Windsor for a committal. Details of who will attend as well as the order of service are expected next week. Her funeral will be a bank holiday, King Charles has announced. It is thought there are plans for the Queen’s coffin to process on a gun carriage to the abbey. The military will be expected to line the streets and also join the procession. Following the tradition of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Duke of Edinburgh, it is expected the family will follow behind the coffin. Heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European...
The Czech government will look at putting a limit on industrial electricity bills at the same time as it tries to help households and state institutions get through Europe’s energy crisis, Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said on Sunday. The centre-right government is readying more measures to go alongside European Union plans to ease the burden of soaring energy prices after an emergency meeting of the bloc’s energy ministers on Friday. The Czech government is due to meet on Monday. “I am for a bold solution,” Stanjura said on Czech Television’s Sunday debate show, referring to guaranteeing electricity prices for industry. He backed the move “even with the possible risk that it will be assessed that there was some unauthorized support,” he added, in a possible reference to EU competition and aid rules. This step could be in place by the end of the year and would last up to two years, he told the show. Stanjura told daily Hospodarske Noviny last week that national plans to ease the burden of soaring energy costs, including some form of price cap, could cost up to 130 billion crowns. The Czechs have started implementing a reduced electricity tariff for households as part of...
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III visited the Czech Republic, September 9, where he met with Czech Minister of Defense Jana Cernochova, Prime Minister Petr Fiala, and President Milos Zeman. During the meetings, he discussed Czech Republic’s defense modernization work to enhance interoperability with NATO, opportunities for further defense cooperation, and the importance of continuing to provide support to Ukraine. He began his trip to Prague on Friday with a visit to the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, where seven Czechoslovak paratroopers died in June 1942 in a gun battle with German troops after having assassinated high-ranking Nazi Reinhard Heydrich. The Secretary applauded the Czech Republic for its leadership in Europe and in the NATO Alliance, for ratifying the accession of Finland and Sweden into NATO, and for its extraordinary support to Ukraine as it defends against Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war. Ms. Černochová described the United States as Czechia’s most important ally. The two countries want to speed up negotiations on a defence cooperation agreement, with the next meeting scheduled to take place in two weeks’ time. Secretary Austin also met with U.S. Marines at U.S. Embassy Prague and several U.S service members participating in the Czech...
From the new year, we will see some changes to facilitate smart working employees. Mainly it is meant to be a reimbursement of costs incurred by working from home: expenses for heating, electricity and water mainly. The minimum fee is CZK 2.80 per working hour. It is not part of the salary, so it is out of contribution payments. In addition, this amount will be decided year to year by the ministry by decree and is based on data provided by the Czech Statistical Office about the costs per adult in an average Czech family. In addition, the text requires employer and employee to make an agreement about the details of remote work: location from which work is performed, scope, time conditions (hours and on-call), way of communications, task assignment, and cost refund. Until the Covid-19 pandemic, smart working was seen as a company benefit; now it is guaranteed to workers in all EU countries by the Work-Life Balance (WLB) Directive. This is for workers to make it easier to take care of their children and loved ones. According to a recent survey conducted for Raiffeisenbank, about 29 percent of Czech employees have the option of working remotely, but only 18...
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala is blaming pro-Russian forces for mass demonstrations this weekend that saw tens of thousands of people protest against the government, the European Union and NATO amid soaring energy prices and inflation. The “Czechia First” demonstration saw 70,000 people gather to protest the government in a development the Czech prime minister is blaming on elements influenced by Russian propaganda. “It is clear that Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns repeatedly appear on our territory and that someone is simply succumbing to them,” Fiala said. Protesters, brought together by the Communist Party, the Freedom party, the Direct Democratic Party, and other groups labeled as “radical”–both far-left and far-right–called on the government to address soaring energy prices and the highest cost of living since the early 1990s for everything from housing to consumer goods. Protesters called for a new deal with Russia for gas supplies, just a day after Moscow said natural gas flows through Nord Stream 1 to Europe that had been cut off for maintenance would not be restored on Saturday as scheduled, and would be delayed indefinitely. Inflation has hit 17% and is marching towards 20% in the coming months, according to Fortune, citing the Czech central...
The average gross monthly salary in Czechia rose by 4.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2022 to CZK 40,086, according to the data released by the Czech Statistics Agency on Monday. In real terms, taking into account inflation, the real wage dropped by 9.8 percent in the same period. It is the third quarter in a row that it has been falling. Central Europe’s economies are bracing for a rough second half of the year, which could even mean a fall into recession for some, caused by double-digit inflation rates that are hitting consumer demand and taking away a key driver of the region’s post-pandemic recovery. With inflation in the Czech Republic averaging 15.8% in the second quarter, wages were down by real 9.8% from a year before. The nominal wage rose 4.4%. “It was clear that wage growth at such a pace would not be enough (to keep up with inflation),” Raiffeisen analysts said. The real wage drop was slightly deeper than a Reuters poll forecast of a 9.5% decline but less than a central bank forecast of a 13.1% fall. The central bank, which held interest rates unchanged last month but has not fully shut the...
The Czech government survived a no-confidence vote on Friday after a marathon 22-hour debate in parliament amid opposition claims of inaction against soaring inflation and energy prices. The vote showed how Europe’s energy crisis is fuelling political instability as soaring power prices add to inflation, already at levels unseen in three decades. The centre-right, five-party coalition led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala has an eight-seat majority in the 200-seat lower chamber, easily denying two opposition parties the needed 101 majority required by in parliamentary votes. Lawmakers gathered on Thursday and debated the motion throughout the night before a vote at midday on Friday. “Prime Minister Fiala and his ministers are not able to run our country…. the energy crisis has completely got out of their hands,” opposition leader Andrej Babis told lawmakers. Former prime minister Babis, a billionaire who was defeated in an election last year, also accused the government of links to people being investigated for alleged corruption in a scandal that has forced the resignation of the head of the secret service. A loss of confidence would have been an embarrassment for the Czech government, which is leading the European Union’s rotating presidency as the bloc seeks to...
This July, Czech households paid the highest price in Europe for electricity; and yet, something many Czechs see only as a cruel joke, the country remains among the largest exporters of electricity in the world. The July HEPI index (Household Energy Price Index), which compares the price of energy for households in individual European capitals, shows clearly what is occurring. People living in Prague pay the highest price for electricity in all of Europe, according to the purchasing power parity of the currency. This index includes member states and countries outside the EU, such as Switzerland, Norway, and Russia. According to the study, the people of Prague paid roughly 52 euro cents per kilowatt-hour in July. That is roughly twice as much as what residents of Bratislava pay and approximately three times more compared to the costs of residents of Budapest or Moscow. Prague’s residents also pay almost four times more than households in the Swiss capital of Bern and over four times as much as households in Oslo, Norway. Electricity prices in Prague are high even in absolute terms, without conversion, that is, according to the purchasing power parity of the currency. In this case, Prague residents pay the fourth-highest price in the EU, roughly 41 euro cents...
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