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The Czech national anthem describes the Czech Republic as paradise on earth, boasting waters murmuring through its meadows and forests rustling over rocky hills. Well, it looks like the country is delivering on its promises - in just forty years the area covered by forests has increased by 50,000 hectares.

More Czechs commuting long distances for work; EIU: Prague now ranks world's 55th most expensive city for expats; Over one-quarter of past decades' big investments located in Central Bohemia; Czech Republic too slow in spending EU structural funds; Foreign trade surplus of 38bn for first half of 2005; Czech crown reaches three-year high against the euro

The prime ministers of both countries also discussed urgent matters including finding a compromise on the proposed EU budget for the years 2007 - 2013, a budget that failed to find backing at the most recent summit of the EU. Following Thursday's meeting the men made clear they would push for quick compromise while recognising the need for wider economic reform in the bloc. The EU failed to agree the budget plan for 2007-2013 last month after Britain blocked any deal which would limit its rebate unless there is a reform of farm subsidies which most benefit France.

Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has challenged the president to do a number of one-on-one radio and TV debates with him on the European Union. In an interview for the Frekvence 1 radio programme, the Social Democrat prime minister, who is pro EU-integration, said he and the president, who is strongly critical of the direction in which the EU is heading, should put their arguments to the nation in a language that people could understand. Debates at closed meetings or articles in the media do not have the desired impact, Mr. Paroubek said. The daily Lidove Noviny recently published a lengthy article in which President Klaus presented his vision of a future Europe- an organization of European states benefiting from free trade but not restricted in their sovereignty.

The Czech Republic is lagging behind in adopting EU legislation, according to data released on Monday. The Czech Republic has the worst results of the ten new member states that joined the European Union in May last year. The statistics relating to June 1 show that the Czech Republic has failed to introduce in time 3.6 percent of EU regulations, which means 57 laws. Slovakia is performing much better, with 1.4 percent of legislation remaining to be adopted. The first three places with 0.7 percent were occupied by Hungary, Slovenia and Lithuania. Behind the Czech Republic are Greece, Luxembourg and Italy.

There have been mixed reactions to President Klaus' vision of a future Europe. The president outlined his own vision for the old continent in Saturday's edition of Lidove Noviny, depicting an Organization of European States, which would benefit by free trade and movement of capital and labour but not be restricted in their sovereignty. Members of the coalition government said that the president's concept would mean turning back the clock by 20 years which would not be to Europe's advantage. On the other hand, a senior communist official liked the idea of losing less sovereignty to Brussels and said that he too considered European citizenship to be an "artificial product".

President Klaus has outlined his own vision of a future Europe. In Saturday's edition of the daily Lidove Noviny, Mr. Klaus says that following the rejection of the European Constitution by French and Dutch voters it is time to abandon the federalist concept and plan Europe's future along different lines. The President would like the European Union to be transformed into an Organization of European States, which would benefit by free trade and movement of capital and labour but not be restricted in their sovereignty. The organizations members would be individual states, not citizens, and these states could act together in their common interests, but there should be no unnecessary "unification" or "centralization" and no compulsory, common ideology, Mr. Klaus says.

Czech support for the European Constitution has fallen dramatically, suggests a poll conducted by Median for Mlada fronta Dnes. Whereas in May of this year 62 percent of Czechs were in favour, now only 21 percent are for the document, which has been rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands.

The government has dropped plans to support a planned referendum on the constitution with an advertising campaign; it will instead launch a campaign to explain broader European issues to Czech citizens.

After the rejection of the European constitution by the public in France and the Netherlands the last EU summit criticized the general lack of information on European issues in most of the EU member states. In response to that criticism, the Czech government has now decided to change the framework of its planned EU informational campaign. Instead of focusing solely on the EU Constitution, it aims for a broader scope, explaining how the European Union works and how the Czech Republic may benefit from EU membership. Martin Mikule called Petra Masinova

The European Union's executive commission has warned it would take legal action against the Czech Republic for failing to implement EU copyright law. Along with France, Spain, and Finland, it was supposed to implement the law before December 22, 2002 in order to provide an adequate level of copyright protection for authors and other right-holders in the digital environment. This is the commission's first warning.