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Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper has just published a list of the top twenty places for young people to emigrate, and the Czech capital Prague came in fourth. "Beautiful and only a short flight away from Britain, Prague offers all the stability of Europe with not requiring a new language, and it has the best beer in the world," that's according to the Telegraph at least. So is Prague as an expat destination all it's cracked up to be?

The junior coalition party Public Affairs, which won seats in Parliament on a strong-anti-corruption agenda, is facing a major test of its credibility. The party’s de facto leader, former transport minister and present head of the party’s parliamentary group in the lower house Vít Bárta is standing trial on charges of corruption. The court hearings which began on Monday will hear testimony from ministers and MPs and the outcome of the much anticipated trial could shake the party in its foundations.

Twenty-five of 27 EU member states signed the European Union’s new fiscal compact in Brussels on Friday - but the Czechs were not among them. Prime Minister Petr Nečas together with British Prime Minister David Cameron have opted not to support the treaty, which is aimed at enforcing budget discipline in the union and prevent meltdowns within the eurozone as was seen with Greece.

This week saw the completion of a two year restoration project of Villa Tugendhat, a unique functionalist villa in the city of Brno. Its history matches that of Czechoslovakia: repeat occupation, dilapidation and ultimately restoration.

A week of student protests against proposed reforms of the education system culminated with mass demonstrations around the country on Wednesday. After a night spent sleeping rough on the floor of university halls and lecture rooms students and university staff took to the streets to show their discontent with reforms which they claim will reduce the autonomy of education institutions, shift the burden of funding to students and put the academic sphere under the influence of private enterprise and politicians.

Czech researchers from the University of Olomouc made a significant contribution to the latest Health Behavior of School-Aged Children Research Study. Sadly, its conclusions point to a worrying trend: Czech adolescents, and their counterparts across Europe, are living an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. As a result, obesity, drug abuse and smoking among those aged 18 and under are on the rise. We spoke to one of the Czech researchers involved in the international study, Michal Kalman.

The Finance Minister’s austerity plan for 2013, which includes far-reaching measures to increase state revenues and cut public spending, has raised an outcry from the opposition benches with the leader of the opposition Social Democrats Bohuslav Sobotka saying his party would table a vote of no-confidence in the three-party centre-right coalition.

The student protests that formed a key component of the 1989 Velvet Revolution serve as a stark reminder, even more than twenty years later, that the imagery of any Czech government upsetting its student population is going to create a major headache. Recent reforms proposed by the Czech Education Ministry under Josef Dobeš have achieved just that. Students are crying foul, with banners draped in universities across the country accusing the government of putting profits before education. This week, many Czech students have taken matters a step further

Krištof Kintera is one of the most respected contemporary Czech artists – he was recently given the title Artist of the Year – and his new exhibit offers an insight into his latest work. Provocative, whimsical and daring, the “Výsledky analýzy” show is one of the season’s most interesting exhibits. We take a look ahead of the opening.

Although the Czech government has refused to sign up to the EU’s fiscal discipline pact, frugality has become the order of the day and the finance minister has warned the nation that, come what may, fiscal discipline will be observed in the interest of bringing the country’s public finances under control. On Monday the cabinet’s economic ministers are meeting to debate austerity measures for 2013 which far surpass those previously undertaken.