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The expenditures linked to the adoption of the euro in the Czech Republic would amount to 0.5 percent of the GDP, State Secretary for European Affairs Tomáš Prouza said at a press briefing in Prague on Friday. The country’s contribution to the European Stability Mechanism would be 34 billion crowns, the state secretary said. According to Mr. Prouza the Czech Republic has made significant progress in fulfilling the criteria for euro adoption and is now economically ready to join the Eurozone. He said it is one of the government’s priorities to launch a broad public debate on euro adoption in order for people to be better informed about the advantages joining the Eurozone.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka expects Turkey to be more active in protecting its western borders in order to stem the migrant flow heading for Greece and further to Western Europe, he said after meeting the Turkish ambassador to Prague, Ahmet Necati Bigali, on Thursday. The Prime Minister told the ambassador to resolutely intervene against people traffickers, reinforce the protection of its western coast and prevent the sale and departures of boats with illegal migrants. Over two million Syrian refugees are currently staying in Turkey, who may potentially set out for Europe.

The Czech Republic’s dependence on exports to EU member countries increased last year, despite the government’s efforts to diversify, the Minister of Industry and Trade, Jan Mládek, said on Thursday at a meeting of Czech export leaders. Currently, some 84.4 percent of Czech exports go to other EU countries, compared to 82 percent in 2014. According to Mr Mládek, the Czech Republic has lost some traditional export destinations such as Syria, Iraq and Libya and has not succeeded so far in replacing them with new Arabic markets. Another problem he mentioned was the diminishing export to Russia.

Dozens of road construction projects in the Czech Republic could be held up due to European Union regulations, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said after a meeting of economic ministers on Tuesday. Sixty-four construction projects are concerned; they have been in the process of acquiring authorization for so long – up to 15 years – that they are required by EU law to get fresh environmental impact assessments. Mr. Sobotka said this process could take years and could impact efforts to draw CZK 90 billion from EU funds.

British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Prague Friday for talks with his Czech counterpart, Bohuslav Sobotka, and be followed later by a meeting with President Miloš Zeman. The main focus of the talks at the seat of the government was Mr Cameron’s bid to shape a package of EU reforms which he can put to the British public in a future referendum over continued UK membership of the European Union. At the joint press conference which followed, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said that Europe would "remain strong if Great Britain stayed" and made clear the Czech Republic would do its utmost to influence a positive outcome. EU reform was not the only issue on the table; also discussed was the ongoing migrant crisis and the threat of Islamic State.

Last year the EU launched hotspots, reception centres to register the migrants arriving in the bloc in enormous numbers. Now the Visegrad Four countries are calling for them to also be used as detention centres. At the same time, the Czech prime minister has proposed another way to deal with the migration crisis: moving the outer border of Schengen.

The government led by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka backed a European Commission proposal on Monday to tighten security at the EU’s outer borders. The Czech Republic has been pushing for increased border protection for the better part of a year.

Dutch minister of foreign affairs and immigration, Bert Koenders and Klaas Dijkhoff, have reportedly admitted on a trip to Prague Friday that the EU agreement on sharing out immigrants through quotas is not fully working. The Dutch delegation was in the Czech capital to sound out the Czech government at the start of the Netherland’s six month presidency of the European Council during the first half of 2016. Czech foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek repeated that all of the Visegrad Four countries are opposed to immigrant quotas. Sources say the Dutch are hoping the Czech Republic will play a moderating role and curb possible conflicts over the next months in particular with Poland and Hungary. A report to the Czech government next Wednesday says only 259 immigrants out of the 160,000 earmarked for relocation from Italy and Greece actually moves to new destination by the end of 2015.

Czech Minister of Finance Andrej Babiš will try at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Friday to push his main proposal for clamping down on VAT fraud. Babiš will seek the go ahead from fellow ministers for the Czech Republic to have the widest possible remit to use so-called reverse charge VAT, where the tax is paid by the consumer and not the seller. He believes that greater use of reverse charge could save the EU a large part of the around 170 billion euros lost every year in unpaid VAT.

The Czech Foreign Ministry has confirmed getting an offer from EU Foreign Affairs Chief Federica Mogherini for the Czech Embassy in Damascus to become the sole distributor of EU humanitarian aid to Syria. I spoke to the Czech State Secretary for EU Affairs Tomáš Prouza about what this would entail and why the Czech embassy was selected for this demanding task.