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MPs from Finance Minister Andrej Babiš’s ANO party are preparing a bill that would end tax breaks for biofuels by June 30. The opposition TOP 09 had been demanding such a move by that date, which is when a programme approved by the European Commission supporting biofuels comes to an end. TOP 09’s Miroslav Kalousek said Mr. Babiš’s company Agrofert would use the scheme to tunnel the state budget. The lower house is due to debate the legislation in a fortnight’s time.

More than half of Czechs trust the European Union, according to the outcome of a poll conducted by the CVVM agency. According to the results, 52 percent of respondents expressed trust in the EU while 44 did not. Trust in EU institutions slumped to an all-time low in 2014 at just 34 percent. The slump was generally attributed to the euro debt crisis, the influence of the former euro-sceptic government and negative reports in the media.

Trust in the European Union among Czechs at the beginning of April was the highest in four years, a poll by the CVVM agency suggests. Fifty-two percent of respondents replied in the affirmative – up from 49 percent a year ago. The polling agency reported that trust in the EU had slowly shifted away from the mood in the years 2009 – 2012. That period coincided with centre-right governments in the country and the second presidency of Václav Klaus, who has long been highly critical of the EU, specifically greater federalization.

The European Commission has approved the first Czech operational programme aimed at drawing EU funds which covers entrepreneurship and innovation for competitiveness. Approval of the operational programme will make the Czech Republic eligible for eight billion euros (approximately 216 billion crowns) in EU funds. Altogether 4.4 billion euros will be provided from the European Fund for Regional Development. Reacting to the announcement, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said it was exceptionally good news for Czech businessmen, firms, academics and universities. According to several European Commission sources, the next operational programmes could be approved by mid-May.

The European Commission will launch an information campaign on consumer rights in the Czech Republic in order to increase people’s awareness of their rights when buying goods or taking consumer loans, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumer Issues and Gender Equality Věra Jourová told journalists on Friday. The campaign will target particularly young people aged 18-35 years who are considering taking the first consumer loan. According to a recent poll conducted by the TNS agency, 38 percent of Czechs do not feel sufficiently informed about their rights relating to consumer loans and only 30 percent of Czechs read the conditions of a loan carefully before signing the deal.

The Czech Republic has offered some 60 experts and about ten million crowns to the EU Frontex agency, the Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Thursday after arriving in Brussels to attend the EU emergency summit on the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. Mr Sobotka said he offered to increase the Czech Republic’s contribution to express the country’s solidarity with the refugees. At the same time, he said that the decision on asylum must be made by sovereign governments of the particular EU member states and not by any EU bodies or other EU countries. The Czech Prime Minister also suggested that the summit should decide on a possible operation against people traffickers.

EU leaders have been holding an emergency summit following the latest mass drowning of migrants attempting to reach Europe across the Mediterranean. Among those in Brussels has been Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka. He backs an EU plan aimed at reducing the number of migrants attempting the perilous journey – but continues to oppose quotas for the acceptance of refugees.

Roma children in Czech schools face daily discrimination and segregation, the human rights watchdog Amnesty International says in a report released on Thursday. According to Amnesty International, the situation is caused by the Czech government’s longstanding failure to address deeply engrained prejudice within the education system. Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Salil, Shetty, said that that by “failing to properly address this issue for years the Czech government is not only breaching European Union and human rights law but is restricting the life chances of tens of thousands of Czech citizens.” In reaction to the report, the Czech Ministry of Education told the Czech News Agency that it had recently taken a number of measures in support of inclusion.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Wednesday that the Czech Republic will push for the EU to clamp down on human traffickers and deal with problems in emigrants’ home countries at a special meeting Thursday to debate the immigration crisis facing Europe. Sobotka said EU foreign policy should also seek as a priority to tackle the problems in Libya, where national government has broken down amid a power battle between rival groups. The Czech prime minister said Prague is broadly in accord with the 10 point programme drawn up after a meeting of EU foreign and interior ministers on Monday. He stressed however that Prague is opposed to national quotas for sharing out immigrants who arrive in the EU. Such a share out would likely increase the number of immigrants which the landlocked Czech Republic would be forced to take in. At the moment the country is mainly on transit routes and not a target for the large flow of immigrants landing in such frontline countries as Italy.

Czechs on average work 41.8 hours a week, according to figures released by the European statistics office, Eurostat. The figures for 2014 put Czechs in eighth place among the EU 28 countries for the longest working week. Greeks topped the table with just over 44 hours followed by Austrians and British. Poles worked around half an hour longer every week than Czechs but Slovaks slightly less. Danes put in the least hours with an average 38.8 hours worked a week. The working week is shortening though for Czechs with just over 43 hours the length of the average in 2003. The main issue is not hours worked but productivity of the time at work.