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On Thursday May 9th, the Czechs celebrated Europe Day. Prikopy street, just off Wenceslas Square, was lined with EU stands and packed with people. Individual EU member states presented their cuisine, culture and traditions. The eighth celebration of Europe Day in Prague lasted until the late evening and turned out to be the best so far. Find out more in this week's Magazine.

Will the European Union attempt to force the Czech Republic's hand over the delicate issue of the ethnic Germans expelled after World War Two? Some Austrian, German and Hungarian politicians are calling for the controversial decrees of the post war Czechoslovak President Edvard Benes, that formed the legal basis for the expulsions, to be revoked. Following months of uncertainty and conflicting signals from members of the European Commission and the European Parliament an increasing number of Czech politicians feel that the time has come for the

Meanwhile, at a meeting of the joint Czech-EU accession committee in Prague, some deputies of the European Parliament expressed the view that although controversy over the Benes decrees should not disrupt the accession process the Czech Republic should not be allowed to join the EU until it had revoked the decrees. The co-chairwoman of the committee Ursula Stenzel, said she hoped that the resolution which the Czech Parliament is planning to approve will not close the door to further negotiations.

Amidst continuing controversy over the post-war Benes decrees , the EU's ambassador to Prague Ramiro Cibrian has said that the possibility of compensating ethnic Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after the SWW must be resolved on bilateral level. He repeated that the EU did not consider the controversial Benes decrees an obstacle to Czech EU membership and suggested that the states involved resolve the matter between them. Sudeten German groups in Austria have been pushing for an international platform where they could present their property claims. One is the EU, another the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel does not approve of either of those proposals. In a related development, a delegation of Czech parliament deputies led by Foreign Minister Jan Kavan on Tuesday presented the Czech Republic's stand on the controversial Benes decrees to the European Parliament.

The Czech Republic has vowed to push for a fair allocation of seats in the European Parliament. The Czech Republic was allotted 20 seats under the terms of the Nice Treaty signed in December 2000, but it feels short-changed since other EU states with a similar sized population such as Belgium have more seats. The Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan said in Brussles on Tuesday it was important for the Czech Republic to join the Union on an equal footing and that his country would push for an adjustment. Hungary is in a similar position.

Austrian politicians have protested against EU Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen's statement that the post-war Benes decrees were no obstacle to the Czech Republic's EU membership. The Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero Waldner said the Commissioner's attitude was " a bit strange". On the television programme Press Hour she said the Czech side was also aware that something needed to be done and that she was confident that "a good solution" could be found. Attacks on Mr. Verheugen also came from the Freedom Party. Peter Westenthaler, Freedom Party leader in Parliament, described Mr. Verheugen's words as " a monstrous provocation to Austria". The Benes decrees sanctioned the expulsion of 2.5 million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia at the end of the SWW and some Austrian and German politicians insist that they must be revoked before the Czech Republic joins the EU .

The European Commission and the Czech Republic are discussing measures which should ensure that, upon admission, the country's annual contribution to EU coffers is not higher than the amount received in EU subsidies. EU officials agree that this might happen since the annual contribution to EU coffers is paid as a lump sum while the various EU subsidies are paid gradually. This would violate the EU solidarity principle with poorer countries. In order to avoid this the Czech Republic has asked for a transitional period during which it would pay lower annual contributions. The European Commission is against the idea and has suggested a special EU fund from which any sustained losses could be covered.

A team of French experts has ascertained that certain regions in the Czech Republic are not properly prepared to receive EU funding. The five member team spent a week on a fact finding mission in several Czech regions and concluded that three regions in the north-eastern part of the country – the Pardubice, Hradec Kralove and Liberec regions – need more time and know- how before they can be trusted to make good use of EU funds.

The European Union's Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen paid a visit to Prague on Thursday, to reassure the Czechs over the post-war Benes decrees. The decrees sanctioned the expulsion of Czechoslovakia's German population after the war, and representatives of German expellees are now clamouring for compensation. Some Austrian and German politicians, meanwhile, are trying to link the issue with the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. But as Rob Cameron reports, Mr Verheugen made it quite clear to reporters that the dispute was a storm

The commissioner for European Union enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, has confirmed that the debate over the controversial Benes Decrees will have no impact on the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. In a joint statement drafted with Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman on Thursday the comissioner said that the decrees were no longer legally effective, adding that property restitution was not a European matter, but a matter for the Czech Republic. In recent months the Benes Decrees, which sanctioned the expulsion of some 2.5 million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War, had been the subject of renewed discontent among Austrian, German, and Hungarian politicians. Some had called for the annulment of the Benes decrees as a pre-EU accession requirement for the Czech Republic.