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As the Czech Republic stands poised to join the European Union, it could soon be in for a financial windfall, as the country will be entitled to draw on structural funds immediately after accession. Every organisation that wants European financial support has to prepare a detailed project plan. However, many Czech companies do not know how to do this. Consequently, the Ministry for Regional Development has organised a series of seminars to provide information on the official requirements for applying.

The Czech President Vaclav Klaus addressed the nation on Thursday in his first ever New Year's speech as head of state. President Klaus, who was sworn into office last March, choose a somewhat conciliatory tone for his New Year's address. There was the usual ill-concealed aversion to the European Union, but this time it was moderated with some positive words.

For the second year running it's Radio Radio Prague's New Year's Eve Special! Over the next half hour we'll be sending up all your favorite programmes like: Letter from Prague, Economics Report, and Stepping Out. We'll also be answering listener's questions we never had the chance to answer before, and you'll hear some of the best in this year's Czech music. Finally, we'll have recommendations for how you can seduce that special someone at the holiday office party - to get you into all kinds of trouble we bear absolutely no responsibility for.

Russia has emerged as one of the world's leading "exporters" of asylum seekers to the rest of Europe. There has been a steady influx of Chechens from the Russian Federation seeking refuge in the Czech Republic since last spring. According to the paper Lidove Noviny, Petr Vorlicek a spokesperson from the Czech Interior Ministry had declared a state of emergency due to an overwhelming number of refugees crossing to the Czech Republic. But, Kay Grigar spoke with a representative from the ministry, Jiri Hajek, of the asylum and migration policy section.

The Czech national team is well placed at the halfway stage of the qualification campaign for the European women's football championship, which is to be held in England in 2005. The Czechs lie in second place in their group and have a very good chance of winning at least a place in the play-offs. The success of the national team reflects the improving situation in this country for a sport that is growing in popularity. Earlier this month, the Czech Football Association held a press conference aimed at raising awareness of the development of women's

As Prague develops into one Central Europe's main commercial capitals, there are literally hundreds of new building sites in the city, to feed a seemingly unlimited demand for new office and retail space. On many of these building sites you will only rarely hear Czech, as a huge percentage of the workers are migrants from Western Ukraine. There are 100 000 Ukrainian nationals currently thought to be working in the Czech Republic, around half of them without work permits; that's in total about one percent of the Czech population. These migrant workers

The Czech Republic was among the first countries to join the international rescue effort underway in the Iranian city of Bam, devastated by Friday's earthquake. Some 22,000 people are known to have died in the disaster, though the final death toll could be much higher. The Czech authorities have sent a 14-man rescue team with sniffer dogs to the area, as well as four tons of humanitarian aid. Rob Cameron has the story.

Some of you might remember a programme a few months back about a very unusual composer called Vaclav Halek, who has composed more than 2,000 pieces of music based on the "song" of the wild mushroom. Well Mr Halek also composes and arranges Christmas carols, and not just Czech carols, but Christmas music from all over the world. Rob Cameron went to meet him.

Welcome to Radio Prague's Christmas Eve special, with a feast of Czech Christmas music. We'll be hearing some traditional Czech carols and meeting some of the people singing them, members of the Punkva Choir, from the Pripotocni Secondary School here in the heart of Prague. The choir is unusual for a school choir in that it recently recorded its very own CD, as part of an international schools project. The choirmaster and four members of the choir have joined me in the studio to talk about Punkva and the carols they sing. We'll be hearing some

Pavel Nedved, the Czech international football captain, has won perhaps the most prestigious award in his sport, the magazine France Football's Golden Ball for European Player of the Year. Nedved, who plays for the Italian club Juventus, won the poll of sports journalists from around the continent by some margin, and his win has generated great excitement here in the Czech Republic.