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Next year the European Union will launch the opening phase of its ambitious Emissions Trading programme, which planners hope will help to reduce the union's overall greenhouse gas emissions. In line with the EU Emissions Trading Directive, as of 2005 individual EU members will be required to meet pre-set emissions caps spelled out in countries' National Allocation Plans. However, companies affected under the legislation will also be given emissions allowances, which, if saved, will be possible to trade as credit on a newly-emerging - and some believe

The government has decided that Czech diplomacy will support the launch of negotiations on Turkey's accession to the European Union. The Prime Minister Stanislav Gross will present the Czech stand at the EU summit in December which is to make a final decision on the start of the integration process with Turkey. However, the Czech government along with representatives of the European Commission stresses that Ankara must fulfil all membership criteria and there is no automatic guarantee that the talks will result in EU admission. Turkey has sought to become an EU member since 1963. Europe however criticises the country for its treatment of women and the Kurdish ethnic minority.

The Czech Republic, along with the other EU member states of the so-called Visegrad group, which includes Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland, has been urged by EU heads to meet Schengen zone standards as soon as possible over the next few years. Joining the Schengen zone will see the Czech Republic and other new EU member states drop state border controls with EU neighbours. On the final day of a meeting between EU heads in Brussels, Czech representatives set October 2007 as the likely date for the country to join the Schengen zone. Among other things, the widening of the zone requires a harmonization of protocol on asylum and illegal migration.

Prime Minister Stanislav Gross has said that it is not yet certain whether the Czech Republic will hold a referendum on the EU constitutional treaty, and if so, when the referendum will take place. However, the prime minister has said he hoped the constitution would be ratified. On Friday Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda pointed out that the question of shortening the process of ratification had been raised in Brussels, to not take a full two years among all EU states.

Originally, the Czech government said it aimed to hold its referendum on the constitution treaty in June 2006, simultaneously with general elections.

The deadline for the ratification of the EU constitution is October 2006.

If products bear such labels as Parma ham, Emmenthal cheese, Cognac or Champagne, you know you're buying the real thing, produced only in one specific area of Europe under strict supervision. Soon a similar label could be attached to one very special Czech product: Czech brewers have filed a request with the European Commission to have the "Czech Beer" brand registered, ruling out the possibility of watery imitations flooding the market.

When one of the proposed new EU Commissioners, Italy's Rocco Buttiglione, suggested that homosexuality was a sin and a woman's place was in the home, he caused so much outrage in the European Parliament that the incoming Commission chief, Jose Manuel Barroso, put off presenting the new team for parliamentary approval last week. Now the controversial Italian has withdrawn his candidacy, freeing Mr Barroso to make changes to his team. One person directly affected by all this is Pavel Telicka, the Czech Republic's outgoing EU Commissioner, who was

It was a big day for the EU on Friday: after two years of debate, the leaders of 25 EU member states met to sign the union's first ever Constitution - a document which is expected to transform the face of Europe. But, behind the fanfare, doubts lurked as to whether the Constitution would ever come into force. Daniela Lazarova has been following the story. Daniela how is the EU constitution perceived in the Czech Republic, which joined the EU in May of this year?

Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross was among the many heads of government or heads of state on Friday to sign the European Union Constitution at a special ceremony in Rome. He and Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda were second in line to do so following representatives from Belgium; the signing on Friday took place in the lavish "Orazi and Curiazi" Hall at the Renaissance Campidoglio Palace, the site where treaties on the original European Economic Community were signed in 1957.

The newly-signed EU Constitution will now need to be ratified individually by all 25 by EU member states, either by referendum, or by parliamentary vote.

The Czech Republic is among nine EU countries that will hold a referendum.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has accused the cabinet of playing down the importance of the country's approval of the European Constitution. While the official signing ceremony will be taking place in Rome on Friday, the cabinet waited until Wednesday to approve the draft constitution in order to give some time for discussion, Mr Klaus said.

The EU Italian commissioner-designate Rocco Buttiglione has attacked the Czech candidate for Euro commissioner Vladimir Spidla in the Italian press, labelling him "a tough ex-communist". In an interview for the Italian daily La Stampa Buttiglione said he wielded almost no powers as far as discrimination was concerned. The main portion of them had been assigned to Czech Vladimir Spidla - a tough ex-communist in whose hands the principles of freedom were surely guaranteed, Buttiglione reportedly told the paper. Mr. Spidla has refused to comment on the remarks. His spokeswoman only pointed out that Mr. Spidla had never been a member of the Communist Party. Buttiglione's controversial statements on homosexuals and women allegedly threaten the fate of the whole new EC.