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The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolánek, has spoken out strongly against the idea of an EU financial rescue package for the central and eastern Europe region. Speaking to the newspaper E15 ahead of an EU summit he is currently chairing in Brussels as part of the Czech presidency, Mr Topolánek said it would be wrong to divide Europe into two blocs. Reacting to a Financial Times report that EU leaders wanted to increase aid to central and eastern Europe, the Czech leader said such suggestions added to previous negative portrayals of the eastern part of the EU in the media; he also reiterated Prague’s irritation with the fact European politicians and media outlets had bracketed the Czech Republic with states particularly hard hit by the financial crisis.

The Chamber of Deputies has approved a special mandate preventing the government from transferring national powers to the European Union without the consent of the Czech Parliament. Senators from the right-of-centre Civic Democrats say they will only vote to ratify the EU’s Lisbon treaty if such a guarantee is in place. The matter will now go before the Senate, though it is unclear whether a vote on the mandate would take place at the same time as the actual vote on Lisbon.

Leaders of the European Union are set to begin a two-day meeting in Brussels aimed at agreeing a strategy for tackling the global economic crisis. The meeting’s being chaired by Czech prime minister Mirek Topolánek in his capacity as president of the European Council, and the Czech Republic is under a lot of pressure to provide leadership at a time when the EU is suffering from falling production and rising unemployment.

During talks in Berlin on Wednesday, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg stressed the importance of the EU’s Eastern Partnership Programme to be launched in May. Addressing members of the Bundestag’s Foreign Relations Committee Mr. Schwarzenberg said it was important that the EU establish a working relationship with the former Soviet Republics in order to motivate them on the road to democracy. The Eastern Partnership Programme is a forum intended to facilitate visa agreements, free trade deals and strategic partnership agreements with a number of countries from Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. It does not imply future membership of the European Union. The partnership scheme will include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine and Belarus.

Czech Minister of the Interior Ivan Langer has declared that the country is not looking to take in prisoners from the US Guantanamo detention facility. Langer’s comments to Czech Television came as he headed an EU fact-finding trip to Washington to consult with US officials about conditions for accepting the prisoners. The US reportedly wants EU states to take in around 60 of the 245 inmates who are controversially being held as terrorism suspects without trial. Langer together with EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, Jacques Barrot, continue their US trip on Tuesday.

It wasn’t so much crying as sloganeering over spilt milk in Prague on Thursday, as thousands of farmers gathered to protest about the way the EU distributes farming subsidies. Farmers came from as far away as Lithuania to splatter milk and cereal over the pavements of Prague, angered by the low prices these goods fetched, and the way the European Union financed their production. The Czech agricultural minister responded, however, that there was nothing he could do.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek expressed the hope that Montenegro would launch EU membership talks in 2010 during a visit to the country on Wednesday. He said the former Yugoslavian state, which later split from Serbia, should start talks about membership within a year. Mr Topolánek also expressed the hope the country would prove its democratic credentials in upcoming parliamentary elections on March 29. During an earlier visit to Macedonia, Mr. Topolánek pledged the Czech Republic would do its best to assist the lifting of visa requirements between Macedonia and the EU by the target date of 2010. Macedonia also wants to be a fully-fledged EU member state. Although it has the status of a candidate country but accession talks have yet to be launched.

The STEM polling agency has released the results of a poll showing that three out of four Czechs see a solidified EU defence policy as more important than security cooperation with the United States. The results of the poll directly relate to public opinion surveys regarding the proposed building of a US radar base in the country. According to those polls, only 28 percent of Czech citizens are in favour of the presence of such an installation on Czech soil.

Speaking in Prague at the European Summit of Regions and Cities, the President of the European Commission José Barroso announced on Friday that new EU member states, the Czech Republic among them, will be able to make early use of more than 7.5 billion EUR, or roughly 210 billion Czech crowns. The European Commission has decided to free up money from European funds set to expire in 2013 as a means of combating the persisting economic crisis. The money is primarily recommended for easing the strain on small and medium-sized enterprises and for projects supporting the environment and sustainable resources. 350 million EUR from EU funds remains available to the Czech Republic until the end of the year.

The Committee of the Regions of Europe is meeting in Prague this Friday for what is the largest-scale event of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency. To accompany the conference, a festival promoting the food and drink of various European regions is taking place on Prague’s Wenceslas Square. ‘Ochutnejte Evropu’ offers passers-by tasters of French wine, Belgian beer and a musical programme as well. Rosie Johnston was at the opening: