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The Czech government has said that the country’s upcoming EU presidency has not been put in jeopardy by the plans of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. France’s head of state reportedly wants to increase the influence of the Eurogroup – a group of countries to which the Czech Republic does not belong, and which, during the Czech presidency, Mr Sarkozy himself would like to head. Czech officials have warned against the move, calling it 'divisive'.

The Czech Republic’s deputy prime minister for European Affairs, Alexandr Vondra, says speculation that the country could lose the right to hold the presidency of the European Union in the first half of next year is unfounded. Some European newspapers have suggested that given the current financial crisis and other issues facing the EU, France could extend its current presidency for at least six more months. However, Mr Vondra said EU rules precluded any such development. There has also been some suggestion that France could play a leading role in an informal Eurozone grouping, from which the Czech Republic, which has not adopted the common European currency, would be excluded. Mr Vondra said creating such a grouping would represent an unwise step which could divide the EU rather than unite it.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek told German leader Angela Merkel during her visit to Prague on Monday that the Czech Republic could ratify the Lisbon treaty by the end of the year: before the beginning of the country’s EU presidency. But the odds are now against Mr Topolánek, for whom the Lisbon treaty is just one of many battles.

“Any reason for sorting waste is a good one” is a slogan underlining a current TV campaign promoting recycling in the Czech Republic, and most Czechs would agree recycling is a necessity. By and large, Czechs are conscientious recyclers, with around 70 percent regularly recycling plastics, paper, glass and other materials. In fact, statistics recently released by Eurostat revealed that Czechs are leaders when it comes to plastics: in 2006 they recycled 44 percent of PET beverage bottles and other packaging – which is 3 percent more than traditional

In Business News this week: as the financial crisis continues, analysts predict lower GDP growth in the Czech Republic in 2009; a marked fall is seen in investment in commercial property; the Czech Republic doubles bank deposit guarantees, while the central bank begins offering loans to banks guaranteed by government bonds; the head of the Confederation of Industry says the government should suspend discussions about euro adoption; and big privatisation projects are going ahead despite the financial crisis, with Aeroflot reported to be the favourite

The Czech government has criticized the extent of EU crisis intervention, arguing that it could lead to distortions on the market. Speaking on the eve of an EU summit on crisis aid to the financial sector, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek said he was ready to be “tough” in using his veto to oppose any proposal put by eurozone countries to all 27 EU members that goes beyond the framework of “basic common sense”. Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said the Czech Republic was prepared to increase the guarantee on savings accounts up to 100,000 euros only if other EU members backpedaled on providing blanket guarantees. On Tuesday the government approved a proposal to provide guarantees of up to 50,000 euros.

Deputy PM Alexandr Vondra has said that the time is not yet right for the EU to resume partnership talks with Russia. Mr Vondra made the statement in a speech to foreign ministers from around the EU in Luxemburg on Monday. The EU suspended strategic partnership talks with Moscow in September, when Russia invaded the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. After Monday’s meeting, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said that he shared Mr Vondra’s opinion, and that negotiations with Russia should not be rushed into. Mr Schwarzenberg said that the status of Georgians displaced by the conflict first had to be discussed.

In less than three month’s time, the Czech Republic is going to take up the EU presidency. It’s a major diplomatic challenge and there are dozens of practical problems to contend with, such as securing enough interpreters for the meetings in Brussels. The head of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Interpretation, Marco Benedetti, visited Prague last week in order to discuss the final preparations for interpretation during the Czech presidency of the EU. Ruth Fraňková asked him what exactly these arrangements involved:

Imagine you were born in another European country, who would you be? What would you look like? What languages would you speak? Those were some of the questions students in 22 EU countries, including the Czech Republic, were asked to address in a new competition this year, called Alter Ego. Part of the Year of Intercultural Dialogue promoted by the EU, the competition, which has just wrapped up, invited young people between the ages of 14 and 18 to create their own double portrait through any manner of techniques: drawing, painting, photography,

EU ministers meeting in emergency talks in Luxembourg on Tuesday agreed on steps to stabilise the situation for European banks, hit or under threat by the global financial crisis. At the heart of the agreement: a pledge by individual countries to raise the guarantee for customers’ savings accounts to a minimum of 50,000 euros, around double the amount currently provided in most countries including the Czech Republic. The move is aimed at calming savings account holders and, by turn, renewing confidence in banks hit hard in the on-going crisis.