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On Monday, EU enlargement commissioner Gunter Verheugen revealed that prior to EU expansion, the European Commission may propose a seven-year transitional period where the free movement of labour from candidate countries would be prevented. On the other side of the divide, the purchase of property in candidate countries by current EU residents would be also not be permitted. has this report.

The Czech Republic's Chief State Prosecutor has called for a re-trial of Libor Novak. The former deputy chairman of the Civic Democratic Party has already stood trial on charges of tax evasion connected to the party's financing. Novak was acquitted last year, but the prosecutor claims that not all the witnesses had been heard and that not all the evidence had been considered. This is just one of many cases of suspicious financing of political parties in the Czech Republic and scandals have been linked to practically all of them. asked the vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Vlasta Stepova, whether this situation was unique to the Czech Republic.

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The Czech Ministry Foreign Affairs recently announced the winners of their annual essay contest. All university and secondary school students throughout the Czech Republic are eligible to participate in this competition, which tries to promote awareness and understanding of the European Union. Radio Prague's was at the conference, and she spoke to the Foreign Ministry's Maria Satarova and the author of the winning entry, Jan Jiha.

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For a few days last September the Czech capital was the focus of international media attention as world financiers gathered for the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank. Next year Prague will be hosting an international gathering that is arguably of far greater significance - in November 2002 nearly fifty heads of state will be gathering for one of the most important summits in the history of the NATO alliance. reports.