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Most Czechs are not interested in the upcoming Czech presidency of the European Union, according to a poll conducted by the CVVM agency. Most people said they didn’t have enough information on the Czech EU presidency and only 24 percent of respondents said they were interested in the issue. The Czech Republic will assume the presidency of the European Union in January 2009. The motto of the Czech presidency is ‘Europe without barriers’ marking 20 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain and five years since the enlargement of the European Union.

As the price of food skyrockets to an all-time high, the international community has started to ask itself whether the production of biofuels on land which could otherwise be used for food-crops is in part to blame. Czech president Václav Klaus, who is known for his anti-environmentalist stance, has come out in criticism of the rapidly-developing biofuels industry, and his concerns are echoed elsewhere.

The upper house of the Czech parliament, the Senate, voted to send the so-called Lisbon Treaty to the Constitution Court on Thursday, a move that could delay Czech ratification of the EU reform treaty by several months. The motion was passed thanks to senators from the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, the main party in the coalition government. But why did they delay approving what is essentially the government’s own foreign policy?

The Czech Senate on Thursday asked the Constitutional Court to examine whether the Lisbon Treaty is in harmony with the Czech constitutional order. The proposal was initiated by the ruling Civic Democratic Party, which has a majority in the Senate, and approved by 48 of 70 senators present. Senators for the opposition Social Democratic party tried in vain to have the treaty ratified without further delay. Critics from the opposition claim that the Civic Democrats are intentionally trying to delay the treaty’s ratification in view of the country’s upcoming EU presidency. The Lisbon Treaty would fundamentally alter the way the EU is run, reducing the influence of the presiding country. The Czech Republic is to take up the rotating EU presidency in 2009.

The Czech Republic, alongside France and Sweden, pledged on Tuesday to make real progress on combating global warming during its EU presidency, paving the way for a worldwide deal to fight climate change. The three countries, which will steer EU policy each for a six-month stint starting with France’s tenure in July, face the challenge of sealing an agreement on the Commission’s climate-energy package. They also aim to launch talks with a new US administration over global warming and prepare for the Copenhagen UN summit in December 2009, which should hammer out a successor to the Kyoto climate change agreement. Czech deputy prime minister Martin Bursík underlined Prague’s priority of sounding out a new US administration for the EU-US summit in spring next year.

The meeting of the EU education and industry ministers in May 2009 within the Czech EU presidency will probably not be held in Ostrava as it was originally planned, Czech deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexander Vondra said. The informal meeting of the ministers from the 27 EU states is likely to move in Prague. The north Moravian town of Ostrava is allegedly not able to provide suitable conditions for such an event. The Czech Republic will preside the EU as of January 1, 2009.

In Business News this week: the Czech Republic receives 15 million euros from the EU’s budget surplus; the number of foreign workers is up in the first quarter of this year; Czech retail sales have grown in February beyond expectation; Czechs are spending more time and money in malls than ever before, and Spar is planning a new chain of small city shops in Prague.

The former Czech president Václav Havel is in Brussels on Tuesday to launch a new pan-European human rights initiative called the European Foundation for Democracy through Partnership (EFDP). Mr Havel, who spent years in prison as a dissident in the Communist era, is now spearheading a campaign to make it easier for democracy and human rights advocacy groups to access European funds. One of the members of the EFDP’s board is Šimon Pánek, director of the Czech NGO People in Need. We spoke to him earlier by telephone.

Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has begun a tour of European capitals to outline priorities when the Czech Republic assumes the European Union’s rotating presidency in less than a year’s time. On Friday Mr Topolánek met with the Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis in Athens. He stressed the focus would be to remove barriers to labour mobility as well as to lift bureaucratic obstacles. He also said under the Czechs’ presidency the EU would hold energy talks with Russia, address budget reform and oversee EP elections. During its term, Prague will also oversee the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, set to replace the EU constitution rejected in 2005 referenda in France and the Netherlands.

The treaty streamlines EU operations by cutting the size of the European Parliament, limiting the use of national vetoes and creating the post of president as well as European foreign policy head.

In Business News: the Finance Ministry and the Czech National Bank agree on measures to fight the fast appreciation of the crown; the central bank’s governor says it is keeping interest rates low in order to avoid further firming of the Czech currency; the foreign trade surplus increased by ten percent; a new body is set up to prepare for euro adoption; and the biggest urban building project since 1989 gets underway in Prague.