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The recently appointed first president of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, visited Prague on Friday. His first stop was the Office of the Government, where he held talks with the Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer. The meeting was dominated by economic issues, though the two men also discussed climate change and the situation in Haiti.

Czech EU parliament member Jan Brežina told journalists on Tuesday that the Czechs had filed new objections against the Polish registration of an EU specialty label for a Polish kind of salami. The Czech product klobasa is very similar to the product Poland is trying to register and the conflict has been going on for several years. Czechs argue that the Polish kabanos is not a traditional specialty, since it is produced in a few Central European countries and according to varying recipes. Mr. Brežina added that Czechs would be most deserving of the EU specialty label, since norms and techniques for the production of its klobasa salami were established in the 1970s.

The Czech government has hit back at a European survey which described Czech Roma or gypsies as the most discriminated against in the European Union. Minister for Human Rights and Minorities, Michael Kocáb, said on Monday that the Czech Republic had many Roma intellectuals who knew how to identify discrimination and spread news about it. A study for the European Union Agency For Fundamental Rights said 64 percent of Czech Roma were subject to discrimination during the preceding year and 42 percent subject to criminal attacks. The head of the government’s office for Roma affairs suggested that the situation was worse in Slovakia and Romania where the segregation of the Roma community was more marked.

Three Czech officers are to take part in the EU’s Operation Atalanta which protects vessels against pirates off the coast of Somalia, the Czech Defense Ministry reported. Atalanta is the European Union’s first naval operation and is being conducted in the framework of the EU’s security and defence policy. It was launched at the start of 2009 and scheduled for an initial period of twelve months, but has now been extended by the Security Council until December 2010. During this period up to 12 EU ships and a number Maritime Patrol Aircraft will operate off the Somali coast. The three Czech officers are starting their mission in London next week.

The Czech Republic has become the first of the 27 member states of the EU to hold an official event to launch the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. The European Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Špidla and the Czech Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Petr Šimerka attended Friday’s launch in Prague. According to data from the European statistics office Eurostat, 17 percent of the EU’s population is living in poverty.

The year 2010 has been declared European Year against Poverty and Social Exclusion. On Friday, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs launched a campaign against poverty here in the Czech Republic, and outlined just how it aims to help the country’s poor.

The results of a Eurobarometer poll published on Thursday suggest that Czechs trust EU institutions more than they trust their own government. This despite the fact that few respondents had a clear idea about how the EU functions. The poll revealed that 60 percent of Czechs trust the European Parliament and the European Commission while the Czech government got a 37 percent trust rating and the Czech Parliament a mere 15 percent. Sixty-three percent of Czechs think EU membership has benefited their country. Experts say the high level of trust in EU institutions stems from the fact that many Czechs are hoping that strict EU norms will improve the Czech environment.

At a press conference in Prague on Thursday, Czech President Vaclav Klaus and visiting Polish President Lech Kaczynsky warned against a greater centralization of power in the European Union and argued that the Lisbon Treaty should not turn it into a federation ruled by a few heavyweights. The two leaders, who share Eurosceptic views, criticized the EU for allegedly being slow and inefficient in dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, which they blamed on the new working structure of the EU, where it was still not clear who was responsible for what. Both expressed themselves in favour of further enlargement saying the EU should not become a closed club.

New data comparing poverty rates across the European Union puts the Czech Republic’s poverty rate at the very bottom of the statistic. Only nine percent of Czechs live at or below the poverty threshold, compared to the European average of 17 percent. But across the European Union, children are most at risk of living in poverty.

New data from the European statistical office, Eurostat, shows the Czech Republic has the lowest poverty rate in the European Union. The data, which relates to the year 2008, gives the Czech Republic a poverty rate of 9% while the European average is 17%. Eurostat shows the demographic group with the largest poverty rate in the country to be people under the age of 17 at 13%. The country topping the list was Latvia, where every fourth citizen is reported to be living under the poverty line.