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Young people in the Czech Republic drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and take drugs less than they did five years ago, according a Europe-wide study. However, the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs still found that Czech 16-year-olds have more experience with such habits than average Europeans of their age. While 8.2 percent of Czech teens smoked in 2011, last year the number had fallen to 4.5 percent.

Failure to bridge the still massive economic gaps between “Western” and “Eastern” states are one of the factors in often increasing and bitter rifts between EU countries, according to the Czech foreign minister. And Minister Lubomír Zaorálek has called for new and targeted EU investment to try and close the gaps.

EU countries should focus on practical matters which are important for citizens' everyday lives, not waste time debating EU treaties and the shape of European institutions, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has said ahead of an informal EU summit taking place in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Friday. The prime minister also stated that EU countries had to maintain a strong will to continue cooperation on the European project following Great Britain’s decision in June to leave the EU. Ahead of the summit, the Visegrad Four, which includes the Czech Republic, drafted a joint statement outlining the need to reinforce security for better control of the EU’s external borders and to preserve the union’s cohesion policy, the free market and the Schengen zone. The Bratislava summit is to start a series of discussions which would culminate in Rome next spring on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community.

The informal European Union summit of government leaders in Bratislava on Friday is meant to send a signal that the political elite can get the European project back on track after the shock of the Brexit vote and apparent inability of Brussels to get to grips with the many problems facing the continent. The looming summit meeting appears to have sparked a discussion in the Czech Republic as well.

Vladimír Špidla, the former Social Democrat prime minister EU commissioner and advisor to current prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka, has said that Czech influence within the EU would be boosted if the country adopted the single currency euro. In an interview with the business daily, Hospodářské Noviný, Špidla said the Britain’s decision to quit the EU meant a clear increase in influence of those countries using the euro. For the Czech Republic it was vital that upcoming changes, which could happen quickly, should take place within the framework of the whole of the EU and not just Eurozone countries. He added that adopting the euro would boost Prague’s influence and the country’s prosperity. He said it was clear that Eurozone member Slovakia is being pulled away from the Czech Republic.

Almost one in two children now born in the Czech Republic is to couples out of wedlock or single mothers, according to figures from the Czech Statistical Office. The trend is described as the most striking of recent years. Last year around 48 percent of new born babies come into this category. The figure in 1989 was just 8.0 percent. The EU average for children born out of wedlock is around 40 percent. Iceland tops the league of children born to unmarried parents with around two out of three children fitting the bill.

The heads of government of the Visegrad Four states are holding talks in Krynica, Poland to harmonize their stands on key issues ahead of next week’s informal EU summit in Bratislava, Slovakia. The summit, hosted by the presiding EU country Slovakia, is expected to focus on the future of the EU after Brexit. The heads of government of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia will also be debating security issues, border protection and the idea of a joint European army. Within the framework of the 26th Economic Forum in Krynica, the heads of the V4 will meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.

Though the next Czech presidential elections don’t take place until the start of 2018, Marek Hilšer has already thrown his hat into the ring. A doctor by profession, the 40-year-old is perhaps best known for his eye-catching civic activism, such as when – protesting Russia’s treatment of Ukraine – he and a colleague stripped to the waist and held up NATO and EU flags at the Office of the Government. When we spoke I asked Hilšer to tell me a little about his background.

President Miloš Zeman, the country’s most outspoken opponent of migration, has come under fire from EU commissioner Guenther Oettinger, for saying that the Czech Republic should close its doors to all migrants since they would “create fertile ground for barbaric attacks.” The criticism from Brussels has stirred fresh debate on the controversial migrant quotas, underscoring a growing rift on the issue in the government.

ANO leader and minister of finance Andrej Babiš has said that the lower house of parliament should discuss at a special session whether the Czech Republic should accept immigrants. Babiš said on his Twitter account that he would not respect the EU quotas forcing the country to host its share of immigrants even if that meant sanctions. A similar call for a parliamentary debate on the issue was made by President Miloš Zeman, through his spokesman, on Tuesday. The Czech government eventually accepted a proposed share out of immigrants across the EU although it had opposed the move before it came to the Council of Ministers in September last year.