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The European Commission has revised downward its forecast for the growth of the Czech economy this year and in 2018. According to its latest prognosis, Czech gross domestic product should expand by 3.0 percent this year and 2.9 percent next year. An earlier forecast had suggested growth of 3.4 percent in 2018 and 3.1 percent in 2019.

The European Commission also issued less positive growth predictions for the Eurozone and the European Union as a whole on Thursday.

Czechs are the biggest opponents of the euro in the European Union, suggests the latest Eurobarometer survey, quoted by Czech Television. Some 73 percent of Czech respondents in the poll said they were against the common European currency.

In 2005, a year after the Czech Republic joined the EU, some 63 percent of Czechs were in favour of the euro. Last year, the most recent date for which figures are available, that had fallen to 22 percent.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has hailed the agreement on migration reached after nine hours of gruelling talks at an EU summit in Brussels as a huge success for the Visegrad Group’s common policy. The newly-appointed head of government, who has vehemently fought the idea of mandatory quotas, said the focus had shifted with the accent now on voluntary cooperation and the need to resolve the migrant crisis outside of Europe.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has called a meeting of the State Security Council on Friday to discuss the protection of Czech borders if Germany decides to turn migrants away at its borders. He said on Thursday that a crisis plan was already in place for such a scenario under which the Czech police, customs and possibly the army would be deployed.

Mr. Babiš said that his Austrian counterpart, Sebastian Kurz, had said at a Visegrad Four plus Austria meeting on Thursday that his country would take similar action if Germany started turning migrants away.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking a new deal at EU level over migrants. However the junior partner in her coalition government wants the police to be allowed to reject undocumented migrants at the border.

The European Union’s proposed budget for the next programme period is “absolutely unacceptable” to the Czech Republic, according to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. He said on Monday that the future budget was flawed in a similar manner to the one that is currently in operation. Mr. Babiš said the EU had dictated programmes for the 2014 to 2020 period in which large sums were earmarked for social areas but were hard to access.

The Czech leader said his government was therefore mapping fields in which investment was required and would push for more funding for those in the period beginning 2021.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said that in order to stem the flow of economic migrants into the EU, the border protection agency Frontex needs a clear mandate allowing its agents to operate “outside of Europe”. In a statement to the European Commission on Monday, Babiš also said that Frontex needs “more than just a few boats” to do its job and therefore must be better funded.

Russia does not present a threat to the Czech Republic, unlike the EU with its numerous directives, former president Václav Klaus said on Sunday in an interview for commercial TV Prima. Commenting on international and domestic affairs, Mr. Klaus said he agreed with President Donald Trump that Russia should be allowed to re-join the G7.

As regards developments at home, the politician who founded the Civic Democrats and who later left the party over ideological differences, criticized its present leader Petr Fiala for not using the opportunity to form a centre-right coalition with the ANO party.

Mr. Klaus said ANO was an “ideologically shapeless mass” that could swing left or right, and pushing it right would have served Czech interests better.

The Party of Mayors and Independents, which is represented in the Senate, has said it will push the upper chamber to pass a resolution rejecting the idea of a law which would enable Czechs to vote on whether to leave the EU and NATO.

Party leader Petr Gazdík said this would make it clear that the efforts of the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party to get such a law approved and support for the idea from the Communist Party have no chance of leading to fruition. All constitutional laws need to win approval in the Senate.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on Monday sharply rejected the idea that the Czech Republic should pay some form of compensation for not accepting migrant quotas. In response to proposals floated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the weekend, Mr. Babiš said the Czech people and Czech firms themselves would decide who would live and work in this country.

The Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania this week blocked a joint declaration by the member states of the European Union criticising the US for transferring its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Czech News Agency reported. The moved, decided by President Donald Trump, will take place on Monday.

The EU has long advocated a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Israelis see Jerusalem as their “eternal and undivided” capital but the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of a future state.