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The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs is opening up the gardens of its baroque Prague headquarters, Černínský Palace, to stage a celebration of the country’s 10 year membership of the EU. The palace will be open from 10.00 am to 16.00 pm for guided tours with the garden events, including a concert by the band, Buty, starting at 17.30 pm. Exhibitions on Southeast Europe and 10 years of Czech EU membership will also take place in the gardens.

The Czech Republic may fail to draw on up CZK 10 billion of European Union funding available for research and development projects, the minister of education, Marcel Chládek, said on Tuesday. Mr. Chládek said he hoped to cut that figure by around CZK 4 billion. Previous estimates had suggested that around CZK 7.5 billion of potential EU funding for that area would not be accessed. A programme for research and development administered by the Ministry of Education is building six major scientific centres around the country. However, legislation on public tenders was complicating the use of EU money for those projects, Mr. Chládek said.

The lower house of the Czech Parliament is on Tuesday set to debate the country’s accession to the EU’s Fiscal Compact, a set of rules aimed at enforcing fiscal discipline. The treaty, adopted last year by 12 Euro-zone countries, will have to be approved by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament to enter into force in the Czech Republic. MPs are also set to discuss an increase to state-covered health insurance provided for minors, retired people, and other groups. Raising the insurance payments is considered crucial for stabilizing the financially depressed Czech health care sector.

The Czech Supreme Court has upheld a sentence of five years in prison for Petr Kušnierz, the former head of the country’s regional operational programme North-West, the news agency ČTK reported on Friday. Along with two accomplices, Mr Kusnierz was in 2012 found guilty of demanding bribes from applicants for EU funding, and sentenced to 7.5 years in jail. An appellate court later lowered his sentence to 5 years. His two accomplices landed suspended sentences. Pertr Kušnier also faces charges of manipulating the selection procedures of projects to receive EU funding; prosecution claims he and his collaborators manipulated funding of around 1.4 billion crowns.

Over three quarters of entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic would support the country’s accession to the euro zone, according to a survey made in connection with the tenth anniversary of the Czech Republic's entry in the EU. A quarter of those polled believe that the country should have adopted the euro already, nearly 30 percent support its adoption in 2018 to 2020 and some 22 percent think that the country should join the euro zone after 2020. Only 23 percent of the entrepreneurs are against euro adoption. Around three quarters of the entrepreneurs think that joining the EU was favourable for their company. They praise mostly free movement in the Schengen Area, EU subsidies and support instruments, the internal market and higher chances for trade. As for the main disadvantages of EU membership, domestic entrepreneurs cite higher bureaucracy and excessive regulation.

May 1st is the 10th anniversary of the Czech Republic’s accession to the European Union. Ten years ago the country joined the EU within the so called “big bang” expansion. The past ten years have brought many ups and downs, from the days when the Czech Republic was seen as an exemplary newcomer, to the years when it was regarded as an uncooperative troublemaker. Ten years on, Czechs are also more sober in their assessment of the EU and trust in EU institutions has hit an all-time low. In a special programme marking the 10th anniversary of Czech

As Czechs mark 10 years in the EU, much of the debate has focused on the material benefits of membership. But what about the less tangible aspects of the country’s accession to the bloc? In this special report, we explore some of the ways “re-joining Europe” has affected Czech society.

A decade after joining the European Union, some 28 percent of Czechs are satisfied with membership, suggests an opinion poll conducted recently by the CVVM agency. A similar survey carried out this time last year found that 26 percent of Czech citizens were satisfied with EU membership. In the two European Parliament elections in which Czechs have participated turnout was 28.3 percent in 2004 and 28.2 percent in 2009, below the EU averages of 45.6 percent and 43 percent, respectively.

Some basic profit and loss accounts for EU membership have been produced, though an exact figure in the bottom line is not easy to determine.

The Czech Republic has so far failed to make full use of its membership of the European Union, the country’s prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, said after a meeting with Mr. Van Rompuy. Mr. Sobotka said the failure did not just concern accessing potential EU funding but also the Czech Republic’s ability to put forward its views and interests at European level. He said his centre-left government aimed to return the country to the mainstream of European integration.