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History is being made in the Danish capital Copenhagen this week, as the Czech Republic and nine other countries are finally being invited to join the European Union. The biggest enlargement in the EU's history is the conclusion of years of long and sometimes thorny negotiations on conditions for membership. It would be no exaggeration to say that joining the EU - subject to a referendum next year of course - will be the most significant step taken by the Czech Republic since the country came into existence in 1993. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron is

It's been absolutely freezing here in the Czech Republic for the last week or so, and the weather forecasters say we can expect the sub zero temperatures to last for another month. While just waiting for the tram for ten minutes makes most of us shiver, spare a thought for the poor souls who have to work outside all day in such weather. On Wednesday morning I braved the elements to see what life is like these days for stall-holders on Prague's Charles Bridge.

With the EU's Copenhagen summit approaching, accession talks with the candidate countries are drawing to a close. However, many Czech official representatives are reserved about the outcome of recent negotiations between the Czech delegation and the European Commission, and are hoping the Czech Republic will be able to negotiate better deals at the Copenhagen summit. One area Czechs hope to get a better deal in is agriculture.

The situation on Czech roads leaves much to be desired, in fact it's downright ugly: in spite of a general overhaul in traffic legislation two years ago that was supposed to make Czech roads safer, the first ten months of 2002 saw the number of accidents involving motorists rise by almost 4 percent, with 48 more fatalities than in 2001. The problem, critics charge, are changes in legislation that revoked the right of the police to remand drivers' licenses in even the most serious situations, a change that largely influenced drivers to be lax in

For close to ten years, the Charter 77 foundation has been raising funds under a project called "Barriers" to help the disabled in the Czech Republic. One of their main regular fund-raising events is an auction of works of some of the country's most renowned artists. In the past five auctions, over 15 million Czech crowns were collected. The foundation hopes to make another fortune this Sunday, when several hundred works worth over 6.5 million Czech crowns from artists such as Jiri Kolar, Stanislav Libensky, and Jiri Anderle will be auctioned in

The number of jobless people in the Czech Republic has been growing steadily despite various pro-employment policies implemented by the government. On Monday, the Czech Labour ministry released the latest data. Vladimir Tax reports on the latest developments.

As the Czech Republic awaits European Union membership in 2004 the country is well on its way to fostering economic links with the western part of the continent. Last week the Czech Republic and Wales announced that the two countries would do more to foster trade links and economic co-operation.

Since December 7th Prague has been hosting the Bohuslav Martinu Music Festival, named after the famous 20th century Czech composer. For the next two weeks, several concert halls will resound with the music of Martinu. As we hear from professor Ivan Straus of the Bohuslav Martinu Foundation, the festival also aims to help young Czech talents:

Czechs finally know the names of the candidates for the presidential office, which will become vacant in two months after Vaclav Havel retires. The opposition Civic Democrats have put forward their long-time leader Vaclav Klaus, the Christian Democrats say they will support Senate Chairman Petr Pithart and the Communist Party's nominee is a former communist military prosecutor Miroslav Krizenecky. This weekend, following much controversy, the senior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, too, finally revealed their presidential candidate.

The cleaners were busy vacuuming the carpets at Copenhagen's Bella Centre this morning, ahead of the decisive EU enlargement summit in the Danish capital which begins on Thursday. The summit could go down as one of the stormiest in the EU's history - members and candidates, including the Czech Republic, are still haggling over the terms of enlargement, and negotiations could continue well into the weekend. My colleague Rob Cameron is also getting ready for a busy week in Copenhagen - when do you think you'll actually be able to come back home to