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Health Minister Leoš Heger says he wants to improve conditions for specialised education for young doctors to help prevent a brain drain, because there is no money to put into the system. Speaking to an association of young doctors, Mr Heger said that up to 2,000 doctors may leave the country in the new year, and that that situation would likely lead to the closure of certain hospital departments. The ministry, he said, therefore plans to expand certain parts of education and cancel a law forcing newly certified doctors to work for five years in a hospital for special education.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas met with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk on Thursday in Warsaw. Both men said they saw eye to eye on the main questions under discussion, EU issues including disciplining countries running up excessive budget deficits. Talks also touched on the enlargement of the European Union, national and energy security. Poland will take over the helm and chair the European Council during the second half of 2011.

In line with the position of the Czech government, the Czech Senate rejected on Wednesday an EU-proposed bank tax that should help rescue defaulting banks. The Senators said the measure would be a disadvantage to European banks that would transfers the new costs on their clients. Members of the upper chamber of Parliament said they want the debate to focus on curbing “moral hazards” of financial institutions, rather than on creating new funds and approving new taxes.

Former Czech prime minister Jan Fischer, who led the country’s caretaker government between 2009 and 2010, is going to publish a book of memoirs later this month from his time in office. Entitled Yes Prime Minister or A Misaligned Country, the book recalls, among other things, Mr Fischer’s dealings with the former leaders of the two strongest Czech parties, Mirek Topolánek and Jiří Paroubek, whom he refers to as Hugo and Boss. Former statistician Fischer, who went on to become a vice-president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development after his term expired, also shares his memories of some world leaders as well as the turbulent times during the ratification of the EU’s Lisbon treaty.

The Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg have sought to repair a rift between them. The rift occurred ahead of the recent two day summit of EU heads of government in Brussels when the foreign minister complained that the prime minister had not told him what policy positions over the EU had been taken in a meeting with President Václav Klaus. The prime minister said he was under no obligation to tell him everything. A joint statement released by the government spokesman to the Czech News Agency said the prime minister and foreign minister had lined up their EU positions in pre-summit meetings and shared the same views.

The Czech delegation to the summit also joined ten other states including Germany, France and the United Kingdom in protesting a proposed 5.9 percent increase in the EU budget in 2011. Prime Minister Nečas pointed out that at a time when savings were being made, it was not possible for the bloc to live as if it were on an isolated island, without regard to the fact cuts were being implemented elsewhere. The summit eventually agreed on a 2.9 percent limit on the EU budget increase, but tough negotiations are expected with the European Parliament, which voted for a 5.9% rise. If no deal is reached by mid-November the 2011 budget will be frozen at the 2010 level.

The Czech prime minister, Petr Nečas, says he believes the European Union’s Lisbon treaty may remain unchanged, despite calls for modification of the bloc’s budgetary rules. At a two-day summit in Brussels EU leaders asked the president of the EU Council, Herman Van Rompuy, to prepare by December changes to the document aimed at shoring up Europe’s defences against any future financial crises. However, Mr Nečas said he did not rule out the possibility the Lisbon treaty would remain as it was. He said he favoured introducing crisis management mechanisms without actually amending the treaty.

EU leaders have agreed at a summit in Brussels on limited changes to the Lisbon Treaty aimed at protecting the bloc’s economy. The Czech prime minister, Petr Nečas, is cool on the idea of amending the document, saying it would be better to find a simpler way of creating a new crisis management system. Mr Nečas has also criticised a proposed increase in the EU’s 2011 budget, saying in a time of austerity the Union too should keep spending down.

On his way to Brussels the Czech prime minister also reacted to a complaint from Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg that he did not know what Mr Nečas had agreed with President Václav Klaus ahead of the summit. The prime minister told Czech Television he had no formal or informal duty to discuss his talks with Mr Klaus with anybody else. He said no minister had any business interfering in the relationship between the prime minister and the president. Mr Nečas also said out that the foreign minister had made comments recently about France’s treatment of Romanies without first consulting him.

The Czech prime minister says that if the European Union’s Lisbon treaty is amended then the changes may have to be put to a referendum in the Czech Republic. Petr Nečas made the comments on his way to a summit in Brussels at which EU leaders were expected to debate modifying the treaty to include sanctions for members who fail to fulfill budgetary regulations. Mr Nečas said the Czech government had been advised by lawyers that a temporary loss of voting rights for breaching such rules would contravene the country’s constitution.