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There is no future in the idea of a unified Europe say most Czechs, according to a poll conducted in April by the CVVM agency. That position was held by 52% of respondents, while only a third said the opposite. Many were also opposed to the idea of strengthening the integration of European states, with 40% saying they would keep it at its current level and 23% saying they would like less integration. Confidence in the European Union and its institutions was suggested to be at 40%, the lowest point since 2003.

The Czech Energy Regulatory Office will not subsidise renewable energy sources put into operation after the year 2014, the head of the agency, Alena Vitásková, told reporters on Wednesday, arguing that the Czech Republic could not afford to do so. Ms Vitásková said the Czech Republic spent more on subsidies for renewable energy source per capita than most countries of the world, and stopping them after 2014 move would save 618 billion crowns. In spite of stopping the subsidies, the Energy Regulatory Office expects the country to meet the EU target of covering 13.5 percent of its energy consumption from renewables by the year 2020. The Czech Association for Renewable Energy Sources criticized the decision, claiming that the regulator overstepped its competence in the issue.

The head of the opposition Social Democrats Bohuslav Sobotka says the government is illegitimate and that his party will not respect it. Referring to the government’s new reliance on the support of defectors from Public Affairs, Mr Sobotka said that nothing good lies ahead with a government that bases its existence on breaking the principles of political culture. He also recalled the fate of the previous elected government, which was formed with support from two defectors and ended halfway through the Czech EU presidency in 2009. Opinion polls suggest that almost 80% of Czechs do not trust the government. Some 100,000 people came to the streets of Prague at the weekend to demonstrate their opposition to the government.

The government approves the final draft of the state financial statement; problems with EU funding could increase the state budget by nearly 33 billion; the Finance Ministry is set to issue household bonds pegged to the inflation rate; Czech arms manufacturers can now compete for US tenders; Czechs are drinking less beer than ever before.

Industry Minister Martin Kuba says that the controversial anti-counterfeiting treaty ACTA should be reviewed by the Constitutional Court before being ratified. ACTA has stirred up a wave of international opposition in recent months and is currently being reviewed by the European Court of Justice. Mr Kuba, who also met with the Czech Pirate Party on Tuesday, said that his ministry would insist on a review by the court to ensure that it is in harmony with existing legislation and does not impede personal freedoms but added that the Industry Ministry had already done an analysis that show that ACTA changed nothing in the Czech legislation.

Czech President Václav Klaus told the French TV station France 24 that the common European currency was a “catastrophic project riddled with faults”. He added that a public debate about joining the Eurozone was not taking place in Czech Republic and that therefore, no timeframe for when this would be the case had been determined. Speaking on the issue of the fiscal compact, the Czech president said that his country’s government had refused to join the agreement because it would have transferred the nation’s state budget responsibility to Brussels. Mr Klaus was speaking to reporters from the TV network on Monday, on occasion of a visit to Paris. The interview will air on Friday.

President Václav Klaus met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Prague on Thursday. The Czech head of state said that he wanted to make the EU project “Eastern Partnership” with six former post-Soviet nations a real partnership, which he currently does not consider it to be. He added that he hopes other EU member states would make an effort to get the initiative off the ground. The two heads of state also discussed the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a landlocked area in the South Caucasus that is the subject of a long-standing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Mr Klaus showed understanding for the Azerbaijani position, stating that he would not appreciate it either if a part of his country’s territory was occupied by someone else.

Speaking at a lecture at the law college of Charles University, Chancellor Merkel said she believes that states will continue to pass their competencies to the European Union, when the union does a better job of it. Citing the free trade agreement that the EU signed collectively with South Korea, she said that some matters can be handled better by Brussels than by the member states alone. She said she considers the European Commission to be a kind of Union government, with state leaders there to ensure their countries do not lose their powers.

On a brief working visit to the Czech Republic, German chancellor Angela Merkel met with Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas and President Václav Klaus in Prague on Tuesday. Two issues dominated the agenda: a new EU fiscal compact that is being pushed by Germany as well as differing approaches to energy policy in both countries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she does not expect a Czech affirmation of the EU fiscal pact at her meeting with Prime Minister Nešas in Prague next week. Her spokesman Steffen Seibert told the Czech Press Agency that the leaders will discuss "big European challenges", but that Germany respects the Czech reticence to the pact. The Czech Republic and Britain are the only two EU members that have not yet signed up to the pact, which binds the countries´ governments to observe balanced or surplus state budgets or face automatic sanctions.