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The head of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, would like to meet with the Czech president-elect, Miloš Zeman, “as soon as possible, EU commissioner for enlargement, Štefan Fülle said following a meeting with Mr Zeman in Prague on Friday. Miloš Zeman invited Mr Barroso to Prague shortly after his victory in the first ever direct presidential election last month. The president-elect said both officials could fly the EU flag over Prague Castle, a gesture the outgoing president, Václav Klaus, consistently rejected.

This year’s deficit of Czech public finances should not exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said on Friday. Mr Kalousek’s remarks came in a reaction to an estimate by the European Commission which predicted the deficit would reach 3.1 percent of the country’s GDP. Keeping the gap below 3 percent would bring an end to the excessive deficit procedure launched against the Czech Republic by the European Commission in 2009, Mr Kalousek said. The finance minister however warned the target could only be met provided that European economy does not experience any dramatic downturn.

President-elect Miloš Zeman has slammed the Czech government for not doing enough to defend the position of the Czech power utility ČEZ in Bulgaria. Mr. Zeman said it was the duty of any government to defend its companies abroad and urged the Nečas administration to use all the means at its disposal – such as EU contacts, international arbitration mechanisms and negotiations with the outgoing Bulgarian government – to defend Czech national interests. The state-owned power utility may lose its license in Bulgaria following mass protests over electricity prices. President Václav Klaus has also criticized the Czech government for taking what he called “a passive stand” in the dispute, saying that ČEZ has been made a scapegoat for the growing social unrest in Bulgaria.

The opposition Social Democrats criticized Prime Minister Nečas’s performance at the EU summit. The party’s leader, Bohuslav Sobotka, said at a news conference on Saturday that because the Czech Republic was going to receive less EU funding under the next budget it meant Mr. Nečas – and the country – had been defeated in Brussels. The Social Democrarts’ deputy chairman, Lubomír Zaorálek, said the outcome reflected the approach of the Czech Republic’s diplomats and the country’s foreign policy.

The Czech prime minister, Petr Nečas, says the Czech Republic’s threat to veto a proposed European Union budget helped secure more funding for the country. Mr. Nečas made the comment in Brussels on Friday shortly after a summit of EU leaders hammered out an agreement on a budget for the 2014–2020 period. Under the deal, the Czech Republic will be able to draw up to EUR 20.5 billion as part of the bloc’s cohesion policy. That figure is down from the EUR 26.7 billion available to the country under the current long-term budget, with the fall reflecting both austerity efforts and the Czech Republic’s relative growth in wealth. Mr. Nečas said the figure proposed prior to the summit was unacceptably low and that the country’s veto threat had been “significant” in winning increased funding, adding that the sum for the Czech Republic per capita would still be fourth highest in the EU.

After a marathon of all-night talks, EU leaders reached an agreement on the budget for 2014-2020. European Council president Herman van Rompuy announced the result on Twitter, the Czech news agency confirmed. The Czech Republic had threatened to veto the original proposal unless cuts were made. The EU’s cohesion fund policy was also crucial for Czech support, ČTK said: all regions in the country, with the exception of the capital, come in for funding. A total of 960 billion euros is to be divided among the member states – billions less than the original proposal by the EC. The budget must still be approved by the European Parliament; MEPs warned earlier that they were prepared to block an "austerity" budget.

Speaking before the beginning of the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas said that the current proposal for the EU budget for 2014-2020 is unacceptable for the Czech Republic and he is prepared to veto it. The premier said he wants the budget to be slimmer on the one hand, and to be fair to the Czech Republic on the other. The beginning of the meeting over the budget was moved to a later time on Thursday evening, in order to give EU leaders a chance to hold bilateral meetings beforehand.

A quarter of all cases of encephalitis reported in Europe in the past 40 years have been from the Czech Republic. The head of the Coalition for Vaccination Rastislav Maďar said on Thursday that the Czech Republic is a source country for encephalitis that has spread to other states. Last year, the Czech Republic had the highest incidence of the disease in the whole of the EU, with over 570 patients infected. Mr Maďar said that given the relatively warm and damp weather, the country can expect a further increase of encephalitis cases this year.

The Czech government on Wednesday approved a military training mission to Mali. The Czech contingent should be part of an EU mission to the African country destabilized by Islamist insurgency, Prime Minister Petr Nečas said. The mission, consisting of up to 50 instructors, is yet to be approved by the lower house; the opposition Social Democrat leader, Bohuslav Sobotka said however his party would agree provided Czech soldiers would not take part in the fighting. Czech instructors should assist in training Malian mechanized infantry troops at various army bases. The mission’s budget of around 220 million crowns should be paid for by the Czech Defence Ministry.

The Czech operational programme Northwest will have to return 2.5 billion crowns of EU funds over problems with project management, the head of the programme said on Wednesday, quoting a letter from the European Commission. The commission, which is expected to officially inform the regional administrations of the request in the coming days, said the funds had to be returned over problems with the programme’s ineffective evaluation system and errors in the individual projects. The Northwest operational programme was halted last year and several of its managers are prosecuted on corruption charges.