Related articles

IMF annual report on the Czech Republic sees favourable near-term outlook, Coalition gov't split on social security and rent deregulation; one-third of real estate companies expected to close by mid-2005; Foreign investor interest in Vitkovice Steel heats up.

The incoming European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday unveiled the line-up of the new EU executive, which will take office in November. The former Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla will be responsible for the employment, social affairs and equal opportunities portfolio. Pavla Horakova spoke to the head of the Brussels based think tank, the Centre for European Policy studies, Karel Lannoo, to ask how important Mr Spidla's new portfolio will be in the EU administration.

It's been just over 100 days since the Czech Republic joined the European Union. In this week's Business Report, we talk to Vaclav Smejkal of the European Consulting Institute about how well-prepared — or unprepared — Czech entrepreneurs were ahead of accession and how they've fared thus far in the expanded EU.

Some 100 days after the "big bang" expansion of the European Union on the first of May from 15 to 25 member states, British and Irish officials have released data confirming that fears of an onslaught of jobseekers from the relatively poor accession countries were unfounded. Along with Sweden, the U.K. and Ireland were the only old EU members fully open to jobseekers from the new member states. Fewer than 8,200 people from countries joined Britain's work registry in May and June, according to government figures, and 14,000 people from the accession states already living there legalised their status. Ireland saw a far greater per-capita increase with almost 23,000 people from the member states seeking employment there in the past three months, or around 10 times the number of work permits issued to people from the same countries in the first four months of 2004, reports Ireland online.

"The most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010": That's what the European Union aspires to become in its ambitious Lisbon strategy launched four years ago. The Czech Republic signed up to the scheme even before joining the EU, and Czech politicians often speak about the country's transformation into a knowledge economy.

Finance Ministry spokesman Marek Zeman has said that the results of an audit of the Czech Republic's readiness to draw money from EU funds will be available in October. On the basis of the results the Finance Ministry will then check each programme separately and decide whether the application for the funds can be sent. Some sources said last week that the Czech Republic was threatened with the suspension of payments from EU funds, if the results of the audit were as bad as interim results had suggested.

On August 4th the European Commission suspended the payment of some 2 billion crowns to the Czech Republic from the pre-accession Phare fund.

Spokeswoman for the EC representation in the Czech Republic Katharina von Schnurbein said the Czech Republic failed to supply all required information.

If the results of the audit prove poor, Brussels could react by suspending advance and further payments, some sources have told the country's news agency CTK. However, the Finance Ministry has denied this.

The Czech Finance Ministry has ordered an audit into the system for approving European Union-related projects following the European Commission's suspension on Wednesday of some 2 billion crowns worth of payments earmarked for this country under the EU Phare programme. The European Commission suspended payments from the EU's pre-accession fund because the Czech system for approving projects did not adhere to EU rules. The international consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers will carry out the audit and is due to publish its findings in late September.

Figures have been released this week showing that the number of foreigners residing in the Czech Republic legally has almost doubled in the past ten years. They now make up 2.3 percent of the country's population, but that number is still incomparably lower than that in other EU member states.

The Czech government has announced it will increase supervision of casinos in the country, the Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs will adopt two European Union standards for measuring unemployment, and CEZ - the dominant power utility - has yet to receive a serious bid on its 34 percent stake.

The outgoing Cabinet has confirmed the dismissal of the Czech's European Commissioner, Pavel Telicka. Mr Telicka is to be replaced in Brussels by Vladimir Spidla, who resigned as prime minister last month. Wednesday's action overturns a Cabinet decision made five months ago, which guaranteed Mr Telicka a mandate until 2006. With newly appointed Prime Minister Stanislav Gross expecting to have a new government formed early next week, this week's session was most probably the last for the old Cabinet. Vladimir Spidla and his cabinet resigned shortly after the ruling coalition parties' poor showing in the elections to the European Parliament held in June. However, Mr Spidla says his Cabinet has met a significant part of its policy aims and has nothing to be ashamed of. In Brussels, Mr Spidla is mainly interested in the justice, enlargement or transport portfolios. The next executive European Commission, which takes office in November, will be put together by new Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso of Portugal.