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The future direction of the European Union is one of the main questions for government leaders and ordinary citizens across the continent. Some of the latter expressed their views in the Brexit referendum. The pluses and negatives of the current political and trade bloc are also at the top of the agenda of the ongoing French presidential elections.

Prague’s embankments have become the heart of community life in recent years. Away from the beaten tourist tracks, the paved promenades along the Vltava River host various cultural events as well as weekly farmers’ markets. For the fourth year in a row, the Smíchov riverside now hosted the largest street food festival in the country.

Prague is at present home to a number of Easter markets, with none bigger or more colourful than the one on the historic Old Town Square. As well as enjoying the live music, folk decorations and holiday atmosphere, visitors can purchase a number of traditional Czech Easter products.

A humble man born in South Bohemia later became one of the first saints in the United States. John Neumann actually studied for the priesthood in what was the then Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but he could not get ordained in his homeland and so emigrated to the US. Even after becoming bishop of Philadelphia, he stuck to the modest ways he had adopted as a priest, and was sometimes ridiculed for that. But his popular following fuelled the demands he be made a saint. The director of the St John Neumann shrine in the centre of Philadelphia,

Visitors to Prague’s main Olšanské cemetery were treated to a somewhat strange sight last Saturday as Glasgow Celtic and Prague Slavia football fans congregated at one specific grave to the tune of a mournful bagpipe. They were paying homage to a Scotsman, Johnny Madden, a legend for both clubs who coached Slavia Prague for 25 years from just after the start of the 20th century to its third decade and took them to the top in Czech and European football.

Britain launched the process on Wednesday of extracting itself from the European Union and forging a new relationship with its biggest trading partners. Many see the two year negotiating process as being fraught on both sides but the British ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jan Thompson, sought to be upbeat in a wide ranging interview with Radio Prague. She stressed how Britain wants to give guarantees fast to Czech citizens and Czechs doing business with Britain and how the ambitious negotiating deadlines should be met. And she also held out the

The great Czech film director Miloš Forman – who turned 85 today – is perhaps best-known around the world for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus, massive movies that won him Best Director Academy Awards in 1976 and 1985. Prior to his Hollywood career Forman had been a prime mover in the groundbreaking 1960s Czechoslovak New Wave. With movies like Black Peter, Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen’s Ball, he developed a remarkably fresh, vérité style, frequently casting non-professional actors.

The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States is at the center of media attention world-wide. What kind of leader will he turn out to be and how will his presidency impact European and world affairs? Those are questions that not just Czechs, but people around the globe are asking themselves. American entrepreneur Brady Clough has lived and worked in the Czech Republic since 1993. I asked him about his impressions of the US president-elect and how he interpreted some of his recent comments about the European Union, Brexit

It is exactly 40 years since the launch, on 6 January 1977, of the landmark Charter 77 declaration. Calling on Czechoslovakia’s Communist rulers to honour their commitment to human rights under the 1975 Helsinki Accords, it was to become the dissident movement’s most significant protest against the regime.

Václav Havel is probably the single most important figure in modern Czech history. Havel was born here in Prague and spent virtually his entire life in the capital. In this programme we will visit a number of spots in the city closely associated with the playwright, dissident and president. And for that we absolutely couldn’t have a better guide than the architect and writer Zdeněk Lukeš, who served under Havel at Prague Castle in the 1990s and in 2016 brought out the excellent guidebook Václav Havel’s Prague.