Related articles

This week the European Union's Statistical Office, Eurostat, published a report on the state of the family in the 25 member states. From the survey, the Czech Republic comes across as average with one exception - the divorce rate - which was found to be higher than in all other EU members except Lithuania.

Tuesday was Europe Day, marking May 9, 1950 when the German-born French politician Robert Schuman made a declaration on the creation of an organised Europe which is now regarded as the beginning of today's European Union. One of the main events around the continent this year was a project called Café d'Europe, in which writers appeared at coffee houses in all the EU's capital.

On May 1st, the Czech Republic celebrated its second anniversary as a European Union member state. While the official anniversary passed nearly unnoticed, on May 8th, a holiday marking the end of World War Two, politicians, intellectuals and businesspeople gathered to discuss the Czech Republic and its future in Europe. Guests included the former head of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, the former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Catherine Lalumiere, and many figures from Czech circles. The forum was one where diverse issues to be raised,

EU statistics suggest that while 25 percent of Czechs claim they can speak English, only 3 percent say they have good French skills. Well, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie - an NGO meant to promote use of the French language - wants to change that in time for the Czech Republic to take over the EU presidency in 2009. It may soon put money where its mouth is, if it follows through with a memorandum Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek and others signed last week.

Four European Union countries announced this week that they were throwing open their labour markets to newcomers from the east. Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain said they would no longer place restrictions on citizens from new EU members, the Czech Republic included. But there's little sign Czechs are even interested. Take the example of Germany: the country hasn't lifted its restrictions on foreign workers, but does have a quota for qualified Czech workers. Amazingly, just 18 percent of that quota has been used. Daniel Munich is a labour market

The Czech Republic and four other EU member states face legal action by the EC over children's nappies. The European Commission has warned the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Portugal and Malta that they are violating EU rules by allowing nappies to be sold at lowered value added tax levels. Earlier this year, EU finance ministers agreed to extend an agreement by five years which allows VAT on selected goods and services in several member states to be kept lower than the minimum rate of 15 percent. Nappies are not included. The Commission will give the five countries two months to respond before a second warning is issued. Any country failing to heed the second and final warning will face the European Court of Justice.

The European Union took legal action against 17 member states including the Czech Republic on Tuesday for failing to follow EU rules that aim to open the 25-nation bloc's gas and electricity markets to more competition. The EU is trying to create a better integrated gas and electricity market so consumers around the bloc can have more freedom to choose what company supplies their energy needs. But problems among member states when transposing the EU rules into national law were hurting those goals, it said.

Why do Czechs need a visa to travel to the United States while US citizens only need a passport to visit the Czech Republic? This is a question that comes up again and again. The US authorities have two main answers: the terrorist attacks of September 2001 have led to a stricter visa policy to protect national security; secondly the number of Czechs who enter the United States on a tourist visa to work there illegally is estimated at tens of thousands and has to be regulated. Both arguments sound pretty convincing, but some Czechs are not willing

Gunter Verheugen, vice-president of the European Commission, is currently in Prague meeting senior Czech politicians, including Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek. But he is no stranger to the Czech capital - he was a frequent visitor prior to May 2004, in his then capacity as commissioner for enlargement. On his first visit since the Czech Republic and nine other countries joined the EU, he discussed the experience of the last two years, and prospects for further enlargement.

The opposition right-of-centre Civic Democrats have strongly criticised Social Democrat Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek for failing to defend Czech interests at the EU summit in Brussels on Friday. The Czech Republic has backed down from its earlier demand for a stronger directive on the liberalisation of trade in services. The move was criticised at the Civic Democrats' Executive Council meeting in Karlovy Vary. The rival Social Democrats were also scorned for the large number of corruption scandals around the party, a lost arbitration case that could cost the state billions of crowns, and unrest in the health sector.