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In related news, members of the ruling coalition on Wednesday attempted to dampen recent heated rhetoric between Prime Minister Petr Nečas and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg – at odds over signing on to the EU’s fiscal union compact. According to TOP 09’s deputies’ club leader Petr Gazdík, the incident had been blown out of proportion; he said that the matter would be cleared up when the foreign minister returned from a trip to Israel. A representative of the Civic Democrats that the prime minister leads, meanwhile, said the two politicians would have the opportunity to meet one-on-one, stressing there was no need for other coalition representatives to be present. Mr Nečas and his foreign minister appear to fundamentally disagree over the EU treaty: earlier, the prime minister heavily criticised Mr Schwarzenberg saying in no uncertain terms he needed to focus more on other tasks at hand.

In an interview for Czech daily Právo, Czech President Václav Klaus has reiterated his opposition to the EU’s fiscal union, saying the current proposal “tramples on the sovereignty of individual countries”. He pointed to the views of some German politicians who favoured Greece handing control of its budget policy to a special EU commissioner, as proof. Such a solution, however, has been rejected by the European Commission.

In the interview, Mr Klaus praised Prime Minister Petr Nečas for not agreeing to join the EU fiscal treaty; the Czech Republic was the only EU member that decided not to join the compact on Monday, after Britain rejected it last December. The decision not to sign has led to a quarrel between the prime minister and country’s Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. Mr Schwarzenberg has maintained that the Czech refusal to sign on to the EU fiscal treaty will only hurt the country’s interests.

Top Czech officials have engaged in an unusually strong exchange of insults over the government’s refusal to join the European Union’s new fiscal treaty. Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, Prime Minister Petr Nečas and President Václav Klaus engaged in a crossfire which has put more strain on the fragile coalition government, and which illustrates the deep divisions between the major Czech political forces in their stance on European integration.

The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX has appointed Jaroslava Novotná as its new Chief Prosecutor. Novotná has worked as a prosecutor for more than thirty years both at home and abroad, most recently working in the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office in the Czech Republic. She has particular expertise in dealing with cases related to drugs trafficking and organised crime. EULEX was established in 2008 with the aim of helping to secure the rule of law in Kosovo. It includes a team of prosecutors from EU countries who cooperate with their local opposite numbers in the prosecution of organised crime, war crimes, terrorism, ethnic violence and corruption. There are currently two other Czech prosecutors working in Kosovo.

The Czech Republic and Britain were the only two EU members who said they would not be signing the EU fiscal compact which aims to coordinate budget policy and enforce fiscal discipline across the block. The treaty, finalized at Mondays EU summit, spells out the enhanced role of the European Commission in scrutinizing national budgets and will empower the European Court of Justice to monitor compliance and impose fines on rule-breakers. The Czech prime minister said he could not sign up to the treaty for constitutional reasons. He also noted that the treaty held no advantages for Czechs and said the country’s eurosceptic president Vaclav Klaus had already made it clear he would not ratify such an agreement. The Czech prime minister has not ruled out that the country might join the treaty sometime in the future.

A fierce row has broken out in the Czech government over the prime minister’s refusal to sign up to the EU fiscal compact. Sharp criticism of the decision from the country’s foreign minister, who said it would damage Czech interests, elicited a fierce counter-attack from Prime Minister Petr Nečas. At a press briefing in Prague on Tuesday evening Mr. Nečas slammed the foreign minister for what he called a rash and ill-considered remark. He moreover criticized the work of the Foreign Ministry and advised the foreign minister to devote more time to fulfilling his duties properly.

In his own defense Mr. Nečas said that in Brussles he had acted precisely within the mandate he had received from the centre-right cabinet

The Czech government has refused to join the European Union’s planned fiscal compact which paves the way for a closer coordination of fiscal policies within the bloc. At an EU summit in Brussels on Tuesday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas cited “ratification issues” as the main reason why the country will stay out of the pact, as the only EU member state besides the UK. The Czech refusal has already caused a stir on the domestic scene as Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said the move would harm the Czech Republic’s interests. Jan Czech Radio’s

Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas, upon his arrival at an EU summit in Brussels on Monday, said that the current draft of the fiscal compact was unsatisfactory for the Czech Republic. If the Czech Republic was to sign the compact and contribute funds to the IMF, it should be treated as a full-fledged partner, he said. Mr. Nečas added that without full Czech participation in eurozone summits, the pact would not be acceptable.

EU leaders are expected to sign off on the final text of the fiscal compact, aimed at establishing tighter fiscal discipline across the eurozone, on Monday. Another point on the agenda is a treaty creating the European Stability Mechanism.

The Supreme Audit Office has expressed concern over the Czech Environment Ministry’s use of EU funds awarded to fight pollution and lower emissions. Inspectors from the office said Monday that even though the country does not meet most of the union’s emission limits, only a small portion of funds from the Operational Program “Environment” has been used to fight pollution and lower emissions to date. Inspectors said that while 18 billion crowns had been earmarked for the Czech Republic for the years 2007 to 2013, the total budget of projects approved by the ministry nearly four years after the start of the program amounted to only 1.5 billion crowns. This was connected to the Czech Republic’s unfavorable legal situation regarding air pollution. NKU inspectors have warned that the European Commission may call for sanctions to be imposed on the Czech Republic over its violation of emission limits should the funds not be used by 2013.

The European Commission has slammed the Czech Education Ministry for two of its projects financed with EU funds, OKNO and SPORT. Both projects were of dubious quality and their effects questionable, the commission writes in its letter to Education Minister Josef Dobeš. The EC has voiced harsh criticism over the fact that the projects, with a combined budget of 1.2 billion Czech crowns, did not have a sound financing plan. In addition, more than half of the funds spent under the SPORT initiative went to analyses and TV commercials, which was simply unacceptable. EU funds for education are meant to go to individuals, not PR agencies, the commission writes in its letter. It notes that the ministry’s use of EU funds casts doubt on whether the money is being used to make the systematic changes needed to modernize the country’s education system. Prime Minister Petr Nečas is set to discuss the matter with Mr. Dobeš.

This is not the first time Mr. Dobeš’s ministry has come under fire from the European Commission. Previously, Brussels auditors had uncovered irregularities in EU-funded projects and ordered that all further payments from the Education for Competitiveness Operational Program be frozen until the matter was investigated and fully explained.