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The upper house of the Czech parliament has voted to ratify the EU’s Lisbon treaty, finalizing the parliamentary ratification of the document. But one major obstacle remains on the road to the full Czech approval of the treaty. The Czech president, Václav Klaus, is in no hurry to put his signature to what he sees serious threat of Czech sovereignty.

The European Union launches a new Eastern Partnership plan with six former Soviet states at a summit in the Czech capital, Prague on Thursday evening. The initiative, which is said to irritate Moscow, is aimed at fostering closer ties with countries like Ukraine and Moldova. But what can the Czech-backed plan actually achieve in practical terms?

A survey just released by the OECD has ranked the Czech Republic among the very worst when it comes to the number of its youth who smoke. According to the survey, some 23 percent of 15-year-old girls in the country smoke on a regular basis, while the same is true for 20 percent of boys. That said, some observers have argued the situation might not be quite as bad as it seems – stressing that in the longer term the number of minors lighting up has actually gone down.

Six weeks after the fall of the centre-right coalition, Czechs have been told the line-up of their new caretaker government. The last minute haggling over its composition has fuelled scepticism about its short-lived mission but it nonetheless faces some tough tasks.

The Czech Senate approved the Lisbon treaty in a vote on Wednesday afternoon, some two months after the document was ratified by the lower house of Parliament. The Czech Republic is one of the last countries in Europe to vote on the reform document, and its ratification is far from complete, with eurosceptic president Vaclav Klaus still having to sign the document.

In one of its final acts before leaving office, the Czech government has just approved a new strategy to deal with a rise in far-right extremism. The release of the plan follows a period in which neo-Nazis, said to be increasingly organised, have attacked members of the Roma minority and clashed with the police. But what actual measures will be taken to deal with the far-right?

What had been described by some as “a nightmare scenario” for the European Union came true on Monday when the eurosceptic president Vaclav Klaus formally took charge of the Czech EU presidency – for a day at least. For the first time, Mr Klaus presided over a high-level EU meeting, chairing the European Union’s summit with Japan in Prague. However even when it came to global warming – a famous bugbear of Mr Klaus – the president maintained a diplomatic silence.

It was a now famous appeal broadcast from the Czech Radio or Český Rozhlas building on May 5, 1945, which sparked the Prague rising against the continued Nazi occupation. The 64th anniversary of the event was marked at the radio building on Tuesday at the precise time of the original broadcast.

A caretaker cabinet to tide the Czech Republic to early elections is supposed to be formally appointed on Friday, but there’s still no agreement on who will be in it. Last week interim Prime Minister Jan Fischer said he was ‘unconvinced’ by several candidates nominated by the Green Party, Civic Democrats and Social Democrats, and suggested a few ministers of his own. Mr Fischer’s suggestions came as a shock to deputies in the Czech lower house, who threatened to withdraw their support for the caretaker cabinet.

Around 2,500 Romanies took to the streets in 13 towns and cities around the Czech Republic on Sunday to protest against the growing threat of racism and extremism. In their first-ever nationwide protest, members of the country’s largest minority accused the government of not doing enough to protect them.