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Former Christian Democratic leader and ex-finance minister Miroslav Kalousek has officially unveiled his new centre-right party, TOP 09. The official announcement had been highly anticipated as the party is expected to draw many members from other centre-right parties. TOP 09, which stands for tradition, responsibility and prosperity, will be based on a platform of social conservativism and fiscal responsibility with a strong emphasis on “Europe’s Judeo-Christian tradition”. Historically one of the leading members of Christian Democrats, Mr Kalousek resigned his party membership on account of what he sees as increasing leftward tendencies. Five other Christian Democrat MPs have also left the party, reducing its tally of MPs from 13 to seven.

The caretaker Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, has given his endorsement to Jose Manuel Barroso’s bid to win a second term as president of the European Commission. The two met in Brussels on Tuesday ahead of a European Union summit in the city on June 18 and 19 that will be chaired by the Czech leader and make the appointment. Jan Fischer took over as Czech prime minister following the collapse of the Czech government half-way through the country’s presidency of the EU.

There were a lot of long faces in Czech politics as the results of elections to the European Parliament came in, and one of them was that of President Václav Klaus, the country’s most vocal eurosceptic and a fierce opponent of the Lisbon treaty. His chief ally in Europe, Ireland’s Declan Ganley, was forced to admit defeat and the three small eurosceptic parties which the Czech president indirectly supported on home ground all failed to make their mark.

The centre-right Civic Democrats headed by former prime minister Mirek Topolánek were the clear winners in the Czech Republic’s elections to the European Parliament at the weekend. They finished some way ahead of the Social Democrats, taking nine out of the Czech Republic’s 22 seats.

Czech Interior Minister Martin Pecina, representing the Czech presidency of the European Union, said an agreement reached on Thursday on information-sharing would allow EU states to accept up to “several dozen” detainees from America’s Guantanamo Bay prison. Mr Pecina said, however, that the Czech Republic did not plan to accept any. The EU’s decision to share information on former detainees should help US President Barack Obama to close the much-criticised prison.

EU agriculture ministers meeting in Brno on Tuesday pledged to tackle the question of unequal subsidies to old and new member states, but made no commitment to speed up the process. Farmers from the EU newcomer states, who joined the block in or after 2004, get lower subsidies than the old members and have been calling for this discrepancy to be removed by 2010, instead of 2013 as planned. The 2013 target date for equal payments was something the newcomers agreed to in accession talks.

An informal meeting of EU agriculture ministers is underway in the Moravian city of Brno. The main issue on the agenda is a controversy over the current division of subsidies within the block and plans for equal payments after 2013. The EU states who joined in 2004 complain that five years after EU accession they are entitled to only 60 percent of the subsidies afforded to old members. Czech farmers say their livelihood is threatened due to unequal competition within the block and together with farmers in Poland and Hungary are pushing for equal payments before 2013. The governments of newcomer states are free to top up farming subsidies by another 30 percent from state coffers, but their generosity depends on the state of individual countries’ finances.

Finnish rock group Apocalyptica have threatened legal action against a fringe Czech party who set a call for a ‘final solution’ to Europe’s ‘gypsy question’ to their music in a European election campaign advert. On Monday, a spokesperson for the group’s record label said that Apocalyptica were considering filing a complaint in the next couple of days. The far-right National Party used one of the group’s songs without permission on an advert which was subsequently pulled from Czech public television last week. In a statement, the band stressed their support for ethnic minorities, human rights and the European Union.

The Czech president, Václav Klaus, is chairing an EU-Russia summit in the city of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East on Thursday and Friday, as part of the Czech Republic’s six-month presidency of the EU. Security, energy and trade are on the agenda but political observers say progress could be slow after Russia's war with Georgia and the gas crisis with Ukraine which severely dented Russian-EU ties. In light of this, the presence of the Czech president, who is known to have good relations with Moscow, is seen as a "positive" factor. The EU is Russia's biggest trading partner, while the 27-member bloc currently imports more than a quarter of its gas from Russia.

The European Union and China have agreed to increase co-operation in the field of environmentally friendly development with a view to decreasing greenhouse gases. At a summit at Prague Castle on Wednesday afternoon, held as part of the Czech Republic’s six-month presidency of the EU, the two sides also signed a science and technology partnership that European officials hope will reduce copyright piracy in China, and a joint statement on an EU-China clean energy centre. The meeting, chaired by Czech President Václav Klaus, was attended by China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The last scheduled EU-China meeting was cancelled in December over Beijing’s opposition to a meeting between Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, when France held the rotating EU presidency.