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The dispute between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas couldn’t have been more timely for the Czech EU Presidency, which has made energy security one of its three priorities for its six months in charge of the European Union. The Czech Republic is holding a number of conferences on energy security, one of which – on the electricity market – took place last week in Ostrava. On the fringes of the conference we caught up with the Czech Republic’s ambassador at large for energy Václav Bartuška, and asked him why the Czechs had chosen energy.

The global economic crisis is having a negative impact on recycling in countries including the Czech Republic, largely dependent on selling its recyclable materials abroad. Now, sources say, the system is threatening to grind to a halt. The drop in demand from countries such as China, has left smaller municipalities in a bind, stuck with the tab of having to get rid of the material. What are possible solutions and what could happen next?

Rising unemployment spells bad news for the hundreds of thousands of non-nationals working in the Czech Republic. Things are especially difficult for workers from outside the European Union, who when they lose a job also quickly lose their legal status. Now the Czech authorities are preparing a system under which such workers could be given a flight ticket – and a cash incentive – to return to their countries of origin.

It’s five weeks since the Czech Republic took over the EU’s revolving presidency, and five weeks since France relinquished it. But have they relinquished it? President Nicolas Sarkozy continues to stride manfully across the European stage, while the newspapers of Paris issue dark murmurings of French unhappiness with Czech “passivity”. So who is in charge of Europe?

Nearly six hundred Czechs and Slovaks volunteered in Britain during the Second World War to be parachuted back into their homeland to infiltrate and support the anti-Nazi resistance. During the ‘critical period’ of 1941-1943, some 300 soldiers were parachuted in behind enemy lines: during the drops, over 90 percent of these men died. Now a new memorial is planned in their honour in a remote part of northern Scotland. I spoke to the honorary Czech consul in Edinburgh, Paul Millar, to find out more:

The Czech Republic’s health care reform has sustained a severe blow. On Monday, the opposition Social Democrats fulfilled the promise which secured their victory in the autumn regional elections, as regional governments began covering the cost of health fees for patients. But there’s a hitch - the new system only applies to hospitals, pharmacies and other facilities owned by the individual regions, which some say restrains free competition.

A Brno court has ordered Třebíč hospital in Moravia to pay a total of 3.3 million crowns in damages to the families of two baby girls who were accidentally switched at birth, a fact that only came to light ten months later. The court ruling was unprecedented and has evoked heated debate in the media regarding how one can put a price tag to this kind of trauma.

Two weeks into the new Obama administration some have expressed doubts over the future of US missile defence in central Europe. Last year the Czech Republic signed two treaties with the US on the stationing of a radar base on Czech soil – part of a broader defence shield – but on Sunday the head of the Czech foreign affairs committee, Jiří Dienstbier, expressed doubts it would ever be built. In his view, the US currently has other priorities, and he told Czech TV, the only way the radar would ever be deployed in the Czech Republic would be with

The Czech city of Ostrava is hosting a two-day conference on how to improve the security of Europe's energy supplies, an issue that's been pushed to the foreground by the recent gas-crisis. The Czech Republic currently holds the revolving presidency of the EU, and energy security is one of the country’s priorities for the next six months. This EU conference focuses mainly on electricity, but it's all interlinked - for a start, more and more European countries are using gas-fired power stations to create electricity, so when the gas is cut off,

The town of Liberec is bracing for the biggest event in its history - the Nordic World Ski Championship, which is due to kick off in less than three weeks’ time. The long awaited championship has many fans but it is not without its critics. Opponents say the event has received overly generous subsidies from the state and argue that given the country’s relatively mild climate a ski event is a luxury that the Czech Republic can ill-afford.