Morning Briefing │ Monday, February 26th, 2024

* EU:

By the end of last year, Czechia had received CZK two trillion from EU funds since joining the European Union in May 2004. Over the same period, it paid CZK 876.6 billion to the EU budget, the Czech News Agency reported on Sunday.

The largest part of the revenue, 44 percent, was made up of money from structural funds intended to support economically weaker regions.

* UKRAINE:

The Czech non-profit organisation People in Need has already collected CZK 2.4 billion within its SOS Ukraine drive. The organisation’s director Šimon Pánek announced the news at Saturday’s concert within the Day for Ukraine programme, co-organised by People in Need.

* CRIME:

In the Beroun region on Saturday afternoon, authorities discovered three bodies—a woman and two young children—in a multi-apartment building. The incident is being treated as a triple homicide. Police suspect that the victims were violently killed.

* EURO:

The Czech Republic must adopt the euro if it wants to be involved in the EU’s future developments, all three former Czech EU commissioners, Pavel Telička, Vladimír Špidla and Štefan Füle, told the Czech News Agency, adding that the EU must undergo reforms.

Telička, Špidla and Füle spoke separately to the Czech News Agency before the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU on 1 May 2004.

* POLITICS:

Members of the Czech Chamber of Deputies will vote on a parliamentary amendment to legalize marriage for same-sex couples this week. No other bill is currently up for final approval.

The amendment to the Civil Code is contentious, dividing MPs on whether to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples or maintain the traditional definition of marriage.