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Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has said that the Czech Republic will exceed the eurozone’s budget deficit limit in 2009 because of the financial crisis. The Maastricht criteria call for countries sharing the single euro currency to keep public deficits below three percent of GDP. But speaking on Slovak Television on Sunday, Mr Topolánek said that this limit would be exceeded because of the cost of a crisis-management plan the government is seeking to put in place. The Czech Republic is yet to announce a target date for euro entry, but the prime minister has said that he will set a deadline by November this year.

Slowly but surely a schedule on the future of the Lisbon treaty – the document aimed at reforming the running of the European Union – is being hammered out. On Sunday, on behalf of the Czech EU presidency Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra met for talks in Ireland with Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin. Last June Irish voters rejected the treaty, now things are gearing up for a possible second referendum in late 2009.

Over three hundred towns and villages in the Czech Republic still fail to meet strict EU norms regarding water-cleaning and sewage facilities. The delay is caused by a lack of finances and the Czech government is planning to ask the European Commission for extra time in order to avoid tough sanctions. Meeting the norms would cost approximately 44 billion crowns, only a third of which could be covered from EU structural funds.

The Czech EU presidency will call an extraordinary EU summit in May on the continuing economic crisis and its impact on unemployment. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso made the announcement after meeting with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek in Brussels on Wednesday. The Czech prime minister said that the meeting of heads-of-state and government leaders would be held in Prague and would be informal. The aim: to streamline and put into practice measures aimed at buoying employment during the economic downturn. The Czech Republic alone saw more than 40,000 lose jobs in January.

Another extraordinary summit, to discuss the impact of the crisis on the European economy, has been set for March 1 in Brussels. On Wednesday Czech President Václav Klaus repeated earlier criticism that he did not think the summit would prove effective.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and other EU representatives have held talks with Russian officials to discuss ways of improving relations. The foreign minister travelled to Moscow after meeting with Hillary Rodham Clinton in the US a day earlier, where the future of US missile defence was discussed. Mr Schwarzenberg stressed that the EU and Russia needed to make progress on a new strategic partnership agreement during the Czech EU presidency. The EU agreed to resume talks on the agreement after suspending them over Russia's war with Georgia. EU-Russia relations were also tested this January by Russia’s cutting off of natural gas supplies to Europe.

The lower house of Parliament will hold an extraordinary session next Tuesday to discuss a programme of state bonds in aid of Latvia's economy, The Czech Republic is to lend Latvia 200 million euros to help it weather the economic crisis. The seven-year interest-free loan is to be financed by state bonds. Latvia has asked the EU for aid to the tune of 7.5 billion euros. Individual member states are to provide 3.1 billion euros, the rest will come from the International Monetary Fund. According to figures published by the European Commission Latvia's economy will decline by 6.9 percent, the steepest drop in the EU.

Europe’s leading human rights body has urged the Czech Republic to stop surgically castrating sex offenders immediately. The Council of Europe has called the treatment ‘degrading’ and unnecessary. Czech doctors have come out in defence of the practice, which they call effective.

Senators for the ruling Civic Democratic Party are working on a new complaint to be lodged against the Lisbon treaty with the Czech Constitutional Court, the daily Lidové noviny reported on Thursday, citing one of the senators. Senator Petr Pakosta said he was working on the complaint with nine other colleagues but expected another 10 to 20 senators to support the initiative in due time. At least 17 members of the 81-seat Senate would have to sign such a complaint for it to be lodged. Last year the Civic Democrat dominated Senate had several articles of the treaty assessed by the Constitutional Court, which later ruled that they were not at variance with the Czech constitution.

Although it now presides over the EU, the Czech Republic is the only EU member state not to have voted on the EU reform treaty. On Wednesday the Civic Democrats and the Communists joined forces to postpone a ratification vote in the lower house yet again, at least until February 17th.

The Czech crown fell sharply against the common European currency on Tuesday, ending the day at 28.50 to the euro. The crown is at its weakest point since June 2007 and has lost six percent of its value this year, Vladimír Pikora of Next Finance told the Czech News Agency. He said he expected it to fall further towards the euro in the next few days.

Prague has kicked off a two day informal development summit attended by EU representatives. A key subject of discussion will be aid and reconstruction of the Gaza strip, which has witnessed considerable devastation following a conflict between Hamas, which officially controls the territory and Israel. The meeting is being chaired by the Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Kohout and is expected that a concrete figure will be agreed by EU members that will be used to assist Gaza.