Related articles

European Union leaders are attending a summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels to discuss the fate of the EU constitution and try to reach an agreement on the Union's contested budget for 2007-2013. Before the meeting, Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek, for whom this is the first official visit to Brussels as prime minister, met with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to reassure them of the continuity of the Czech Republic's position in NATO and the EU.

Mr Paroubek also appealed that the ratification process of the European Union constitution continue but that the period be extended beyond 2006 to give the countries more time for reflection. With regards to the European budget, the Czech prime minister says he aims to achieve the best terms for the Czech Republic.

Leaders from the 25 European Union member countries have gathered in Brussels with the hope of resolving two outstanding questions: what to do with the battered EU Constitution and how to resolve the deadlock over the budget for 2007-2013. Not many are optimistic: for good reason the meeting has already been dubbed the "Crisis Summit" and many fear that - at least for the moment - differences within the EU are insurmountable.

The accession of Turkey and eventually also Ukraine to the European Union is something that has won support most recently from the right-of-centre Civic Democrats, not least the party's founding father President Vaclav Klaus. The president, in Kiev on Tuesday, fully backed efforts by the country towards eventual accession, saying he hoped it would take them considerably less time than it took the Czechs.

Since joining the European Union last year, the Czech Republic has become more involved in both formal and informal European structures and networks. For example, last month the country opened a liaison office for research and development in the centre of Brussels, joining the 20-member Informal Group of Liaison Offices for Research and Development in the European capital.

The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, or the so-called Visegrad countries, have agreed that the EU Constitution ratification process should continue, even after French and Dutch voters rejected it, the Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka said on Friday at a Visegrad Group summit in Poland, which has been dominated by EU integration. Referring to next week's EU summit, the Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek said the Czech Republic was waiting for a signal from the European Council, which would have an important effect on the ratification process in the Czech Republic. The prime ministers also agreed they wanted EU member states to agree on the European Union's budget for 2007-2013 at next week's summit in Brussels. Radio Prague's Martina Lustigova reports from the Visegrad summit.

"The prime ministers talked also about the growth of the budget of the Visegrad Fund. Currently, the budget is 3 million euros and in the future each country should pay 50,000 euros more. The Visegrad Fund should concentrate on new projects. Currently the fund supports mainly cultural activities, cooperation of schools, a number of festivals or translations of books. In the future, the Visegrad Fund should also help other countries, for example, last year the Visegrad Fund sent its observers to Ukraine for the elections."

Encouraging economic growth results. Price hikes expected in the summer. Interest rate cuts on mortgage loans. Unemployment rate drops due to seasonal work. Apple Computer to open shop in Czech Republic. Czech Republic benefits from EU membership.

When we talk about "Europeans", who do we have in mind? Can all Europeans be put into one basket when it comes to values and characteristics? That's what the international research agencies Euro RSCG and TNS wanted to find out when they conducted a telephone poll to determine who the Europeans really are.

Eight senators have expressed support for an association of Czech house owners who are planning to sue the Czech Republic for hundreds of millions of crowns in "moral damages" at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The association is unhappy with the country's policy of regulated rent. Eight senators for the opposition Civic Democratic Party have publicly backed the association's decision to sue the Czech Republic calling on the government to address the problem. House owners who have filed the complaint, say that the collected rent does not even cover maintenance costs. Rent control covers almost 20 percent of occupied apartments nationwide.

The EU constitution suffered another major set-back on Monday when Britain announced it would be postponing its referendum vote. The decision provoked immediate reaction from pro-constitution politicians including Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek, who has been pushing for the ratification process to continue. Here in the Czech Republic, as elsewhere, doubt has grown over what to do next: should - and can - the constitution be saved? Or is it, as critics say, in rigor mortis.

EU border controls should be lifted for Czechs in late 2007, when Brussels plans to extend the Schengen area to the new member states, Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan said following a meeting with his counterparts from the EU, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. The ministers discussed the introduction of a new generation of the Schengen information system SISII the launch of which, in the spring of 2007, is a necessary condition for expansion.