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The European Commission has decided to launch proceedings against the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary for refusing to accept migrants allocated to them under a compulsory EU system. The news was announced by the commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, Dimitris Avramopulos, on Tuesday. The Czech Republic is adamant that it will not take part with the prime minister stating that the government had already prepared to defend its position. A number of dailies around Europe, however, see the situation differently: evidence of a deepening

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s post as leader of the Social Democratic Party is looking increasingly shaky, with speculation increasing he could be replaced before the autumn election. Mr Sobotka refused to comment so far, saying only that the party leadership would address current developments on Wednesday.

An exhibition Wild for Life got underway at Prague airport this week, featuring large format photos of world famous celebrities morphed with pictures of animals endangered by poaching and illegal trafficking. The exhibition is part of an international campaign for endangered wildlife. I spoke to Jan Stejskal of world famous Dvůr Králové Zoo, which is involved in the campaign, and asked him to outline its main aims:

Airbnb and other sites have radically transformed the Prague accommodation scene. But the most central district of the city, Prague 1, has had enough and says it wants to push ahead if necessary with its own rules for regulating the phenomenon.

A high-profile conference on strengthening common EU security and defence cooperation, hosted by the Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, is taking place at Prague’s Žofín palace on Friday. In his opening speech, the Czech Prime Minister said the European Union must be able to guarantee security on the continent.

For the second time in just under two years, Britain has left most of the rest of Europe bemused. The Brexit referendum has been followed by a snap election aimed at giving a strong Brexit negotiating hand with Brussels to the ruling Conservatives. That clearly backfired and like the rest, Czechs are now trying to work out what happens next.

Among many who have come to the Czech Republic to mark this Saturday’s 75th anniversary of the Nazis’ annihilation of Lidice is Alan Gerrard of the group Lidice Lives, which is based in the UK city of Stoke-on-Trent. It is a kind of social media-based successor to Lidice Shall Live, a major initiative to rebuild the Czech village launched in Stoke in September 1942 by the politician Sir Barnett Stross. When we spoke, I asked Gerrard whether he had been inspired by Stross’s work.

What is already being described as the Prague exhibition event of the year opened to the public on the banks of the River Vltava today. Gott My Life is a lavish tribute to the legendary Czech pop ikon Karel Gott looking back at his 60 years of success.

While some pundits praised Social Democrats leader Bohuslav Sobotka for his handling of the recent government crisis, it doesn’t seem to have benefited his party, who a recent opinion poll put in fourth place on just 10 percent support. In the meantime, there have been reports that Prime Minister Sobotka could be replaced as party chairman even before October’s elections. So why are the Social Democrats in such poor shape at the moment? That’s a question I put to political scientist Jiří Pehe.

The current hot and dry weather has created ideal conditions for the spread of the bark beetle, one of the biggest threats to the Czech Republic’s forests. Experts from the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences are now testing a new method involving sniffer dogs to detect the infestation in its early stages. I spoke to the dean of the faculty, Marek Turčáni, who is in charge of the project, and asked him how serious the beetle infestation is this year: