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European Union accession is now coming up fast - after a ten year accession process just weeks remain before the Czech Republic and nine other candidate countries become members. That's not to say so-called euro-sceptics have disappeared - quite the contrary. With the EU draft constitution far from ratified, and promises like the free movement of labour put for the most part on hold for now - at least for the Czechs - euro-sceptics here may feel they have been vindicated - that their warnings were correct. Jan Velinger spoke recently with economist

On a visit to Finland, the Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla criticized movement of labour restrictions within the enlarged EU. Of all the EU member states only Britain and Ireland have opened their labour markets to the newcomers. The Czech Prime Minister said the restrictions introduced against the new EU countries were ungrounded and based on prejudice. The Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen countered that although his country had introduced a two year restriction period it is at the same time very flexible in granting labour permits. 8o% of all applications submitted have been granted, he said.

European Union leaders are gathering in Brussels for a summit dominated by three main issues: turning the EU into the world's most competitive economy, restarting the stalled talks on a European Constitution, and the fight against terrorism. Leaders of the 10 countries which join the EU on May 1st - the Czech Republic among them - are also attending the talks. Radio Prague's Alexis Rosenzweig is in Brussels; we spoke to him earlier.

Pravo reports today that Culture Minister Pavel Dostal could be the only member of the cabinet to accompany President Vaclav Klaus on his forthcoming trip to China. Mr Klaus is due to visit the country in mid-April, but neither Trade and Industry Minister Milan Urban nor Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda is likely to go with him. Mr Klaus, who wants to strengthen economic ties with China, disagrees with the two men on a number of issues, says Pravo.

The Czech foreign trade balance last month reached its highest monthly surplus in a decade. The government has announced the privatisation of two coalmining companies. The telecommunications regulator has cut fixed-to-mobile interconnection rates. The number of tourists visiting the Czech Republic was up last year, while the number of bankruptcies was down. A poll suggests few Czechs will go choose to work in other EU countries after accession. And the governor of the Czech National Bank has called for changes in euro adoption criteria.

As decided in Lisbon the European Union plans to become the most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010. To achieve this goal it strongly supports education and training. After the accession in May, the education system of the Czech Republic will become part of this ambitious plan.

The head of the National Gallery Milan Knizak has announced that he will be withdrawing his bid to run in elections to the European Parliament in June. Although just two weeks ago Mr Knizak promised the National Coalition he would run as one of its representatives, the National Gallery head has since come to the conclusion he would be unable to balance his duties as "eurominister" and gallery head if he were elected. Mr Knizak, withdrawing his bid on Monday said he would concentrate instead on making the National Gallery one of European calibre.

The Czech Republic has just marked the 5th anniversary of NATO membership, and joins the European Union in less than six weeks' time. But while the Czech Republic and most of central and eastern Europe is now safely ensconced in NATO and the EU, attention is now shifting to the south and the east - towards the Balkans, the Black Sea, even the Caucasus. Last week, leaders of more than a dozen countries met in the Slovak capital Bratislava, to discuss the future of European integration. Rob Cameron attended the summit, and has this report.

The Czech finance minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, and representatives of eight other new European Union countries agreed at a meeting in Bratislava on Friday that the current ceiling on expenditure in the EU budget should be maintained. The officials also said conditions set in the stability and growth pact should not be loosened. The Czech Republic is one of ten countries joining the EU on May 1.

According to EU commission sources the Czech Republic has found itself dismally behind in the translation of legal documents on European law just over a month before the Czech Republic joins the European Union. The drop-off in translations of binding laws into Czech is allegedly connected with a lack of staff and organisational changes at the government's revision centre, and the Czech news agency CTK has reported that unless the documents are fully translated the laws theoretically need not be legally binding come May 1st, the date of European accession. CTK reports that Czech Ambassador Pavel Telicka is to discuss the issue with Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla at the weekend.