Political commentators have recently criticized the government for a lack of communication about EU issues, highlighting it as a reason for the Czech population's apathetic stance on EU accession. European Day is an attempt to remedy the situation, and to inform Czech citizens about the benefits of EU membership. I talked to a spokesperson from the European Information Centre in Prague, and asked her if she could tell me about some of the events which were being held:

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Pilsen, the West Bohemian heavy-industry and beer-brewing center, was the biggest Czech city liberated by the United States army in the last days of the war and for many years that fact was hardly mentioned, since, according to the official communist-era version, Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Soviet army. Actually, that version wasn't only made up after the communist takeover, the allies had agreed on the post-war division of interests in Europe before the end of the war. That's why Prague had to wait days to be liberated by the Soviets, after the city's inhabitants had staged an uprising against the Nazi occupants, even though General Patton's army was only two hours away.

The re-enactment of many of the events of 55 years ago marked this year's celebrations, including one of the battles of the Prague uprising that took place right here in front of our Czech Radio building on Vinohradska Street. In various parts of the country, other battles were re-enacted in the old military and police uniforms, with the weapons of the day. In the outskirts of Pilsen an American military camp with 20 huge tents, complete with a field kitchen and hospital was set up, and 150 men in World War II uniforms lived there throughout the days commemorating the anniversary. Thousands of people came to see the camp, many of them remembering the actual event. I asked Jana Mertova of Czech Radio's Pilsen office whether the celebrations were basically a nostalgic event, a time for those who had lived through the events to remember.

"It was anything but a time for nostalgic remembrances," Jana Mertova told me. Not only because so many young people took part, and there were so many of them, admiring the old cars shown by members of the Military Car Club, for example, or the old weapons. Not only that, but the whole program was aimed towards the future. The biggest parade in Pilsen was dedicated to the history and role of the Czech army throughout the 20th century, beginning with World War I and leading all the way to Czech participation in peace-keeping forces in Bosnia and Kosovo. And there was talk of future Czech-American cooperation not only in discussions in which the nearly 300 visiting US World War II veterans took part, but also, and above all, in talks held by US Ambassador John Shattuck and Congressman Robert Dole, who visited Pilsen for the event.

An Irish friend of mine - I'll call him Steven Crawford - recently married his Czech fiance. The marriage was complicated by the mountains of paperwork demanded by the Czech authorities before they allowed my friend and his fiance to enter into holy matrimony. Steven had lived in the Czech Republic for some time, and so was well acquainted with the Czech obsession with paperwork. But their attempt to determine his future wife's married name meant scaling new heights of bureaucratic lunacy.

She wanted to take his surname, but without the female suffix 'ova.' Their request was turned down flat by the registry office. Much arguing followed, before the authorities finally informed her that the only way to become Mrs Crawford was to marry Mr Crawford, wait for a new identity card with her new name Crawfordova, and then pay to change her name from Crawfordova to Crawford. The last I heard they'd given up in exasperation. She remains Mrs Crawfordova, on paper at least. Another friend, also Irish, choose a different compromise. His wife bears a double-barrelled surname - his surname - without the -ova - followed by her maiden name.

All this could now change. Under a draft law to be submitted to parliament in the coming weeks, Czech women who marry foreign men will be given the chance of taking their husband's names without the suffix -ova. Meanwhile foreign women will no longer have their names automatically feminised by the Czech authorities, a practice which the government's own human rights commission says contravenes international agreements.

But there is, of course, a catch. The new legislation won't affect women who marry Czech men. So if Jana Dvorakova marries Jiri Novak, she automatically becomes Mrs Novakova. Some say the practice is sexist - 'ova', after all, denotes possession. They propose Mrs Novaka as a compromise solution. This, in turn, has the grammarians up in arms. They say it would contravene the rules of the Czech language. Who will win in the end remains to be seen. But in the words of America's Chicago Tribune - the Czechs' sexist tradition could soon be ova.

Over the weekend Prague's Wenceslas Square housed a demonstration with a difference. This time it wasn't a protest against globalisation, but an altogether more natural phenomenon - childbirth. Several dozen mothers and mothers-to-be from the Movement for Active Motherhood gathered on the square to collect signatures in favour of a maternity-care system more in tune with the interests of the mother.

Czech maternity care has a reputation for being efficient but impresonal, and the movement hopes to change maternity hospitals into supportive and friendly places that meet the parents' needs. To the bemusement of passing tourists, the event had something of a carnival atmosphere, complete with African drums and improvised performances, as David Vaughan found out when he went along. He spoke with one of the organisers, Lenka Adamkova.

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The whole event culminated in a performance - a parody of a typical Czech childbirth, complete with a traumatised mother (played here by a man) and an apathetic and unsympathetic doctor. A second performance showed the joys of natural childbirth, with soothing music and the mother herself playing the active role with the help and support of a midwife. The role of the midwife is central to the Movement for Active Motherhood's campaign. Currently in the Czech Republic, midwives have only very limited powers and in the medical hierarchy they are always subordinate to the doctor. But the Movement stresses that it is not in conflict with medical professionals, and many doctors, especially among the younger generation, actively sympathise with its ambitions. And it does seem to be making progress. Giving birth in the Czech Republic - or at least in Prague - is already a very different experience from in the days before the fall of communism.

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