Morning Briefing │ Wednesday, February 7th, 2024

* EURO:

Prime Minister Petr Fiala has announced that Czech European Affairs Minister Martin Dvořák will not appoint a commissioner for Czechia to join the European exchange-rate mechanism (ERM II) and adopt the euro. On Monday, Dvořák appointed an economist as his commissioner for euro adoption, which angered many coalition partners.

* POLITICS:

A Prague local politician, Pavel Novotný, is facing court over comments he made about Palestinians on the internet, Czech Television reported on Tuesday.

The Civic Democrat mayor of the Řeporyje district said on X (formerly Twitter) in December that Palestinians were nothing but monkeys. In response to a reply he said the Palestinians should be bombed.

* NATO:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to attend an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague in May, Seznam Zprávy reported.

The gathering will be the biggest NATO event in Prague since a summit in 2002 and comes as Czechia marks 25 years of membership and the alliance marks 75 years of existence.

* ENERGY:

The Czech government expects to negotiate with the opposition ANO on the construction of new nuclear units, but is bound by confidentiality rules until the tender is concluded, Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura (ODS) said in a discussion on Czech Television yesterday.

US company Westinghouse, whose bid did not meet the conditions, will not proceed to the next part of the tender.

* SPORT:

The town of Nové Město (Vysočina) has officially started hosting the 2024 Biathlon World Championship, marking the first time in 11 years that Czechia is hosting the competition.

The newly reconstructed Vysočina Arena will host the first race, mixed relays, on Wednesday at 5:20 p.m. Jiří Hamza, head of Czech Biathlon, welcomed the championship and hopes for good weather and for Czech athletes to perform well. The championship will run until Feb. 18.