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Kristalina Georgieva, EU commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response told the CTK news agency on Monday that the Czech Republic is one of the EU’s best providers of humanitarian and development help. On a working visit to the Czech Republic, the EU commissioner said this was largely due to good organization and people’s willingness to provide aid to areas afflicted by natural or humanitarian disasters. Ms. Georgieva said the Czech Republic’s participation in humanitarian actions is by far the biggest of the 12 EU “newcomer” states.

The Czech Republic has won EU protection for Karlovy Vary spa wafers, the Czech news agency ČTK reported on Thursday. The European Commission reportedly granted the product the Protected Geographical Indication status which means only wafers made in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary will be able to use that name. The decision comes despite opposition from Germany and Austria where locally made wafers bear the same name.

Wafers in Karlovy Vary, also known by its German name Carlsbad, were first produced in mid-19th century. At that time, the town was almost exclusively populated by ethnic Germans whose descendants were forced to leave after WWII. However, Karlovy Vary continued producing its spa wafers even after the town was repopulated by Czechs.

The Czech Republic won’t adopt the common European currency in the foreseeable future, President Václav Klaus said on Tuesday. Speaking during an official visit to Belgium, Mr Klaus added he had for over two decades been warning against possible risks of introducing a common European currency in a “very heterogeneous group” of countries. The Czech Republic has set no definite benchmark for the adoption of the euro although it is bound to introduce the single European currency by its EU-accession treaty. This year, popular support for the move among Czechs sank to 43 percent, the lowest level since 2005.

The European Commission has proposed fining the Czech Republic 180 million crowns for agricultural land erosion. The Ministry of Agriculture say it is reviewing the proposal and may appeal. The Ministry also said that the fine could have been as high as one billion crowns, and that that was averted thanks to its own speedy tightening of regulations upon the change of government. Nearly a half of arable land in the Czech Republic is at danger of erosion.

Czech ambassador to the EU Milena Vicenová rejects the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecila Malmstrom’s criticism of the Czech Republic’s practice of using sexual arousal testing to determine whether applicants who seek asylum on grounds of being gay are actually homosexual. Mrs. Vicenová said that phallometric testing was no longer in use in the Czech Republic and that the criticism suggested the practice was widely employed. She said this was untrue and that the tests had only been used in a small number of cases. In December of last year, the EU issued a statement that suggested the practice could be in violation of its convention on human rights.

Trade unions are expected to decide on the possibility of striking next week in protest against government reforms. The confederation of trade unions says that most of its members will strike should the transport unions do so. The deputy chairman of the confederation told a press conference on Wednesday that the situation among unions is tense and that many of them are looking for bolder action. They are to meet on Wednesday to discuss their next steps.

The EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, has severely criticized the Czech Republic’s use of sexual arousal testing to ascertain whether men who seek asylum on the grounds that they are gay are actually homosexual. She said on Tuesday that this treatment was degrading and interfered with the person’s human dignity. The EU this week sent another warning to Prague, stating that 'concerns still remain' about phallometric tests, which appear to breach the union's Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention for the Protection

Critics of summer-time or daylight-saving time will fight their battle to get it abolished on EU ground. Czech MEP Zuzana Roitova said on Tuesday that while the EC did not consider summer-time to be an issue a petition signed by a million people from at least seven EU countries would undoubtedly change that. Critics of summertime argue that the economic advantages it brings are far outweighed by the negative impact on people’s biorhythms and general state of well-being.

The Czech Republic has put forward a proposal to temporarily exclude EU member states which are not sufficiently protecting their borders from the free-travel Schengen zone. The deputy of the interior minister, Viktor Čech, told journalists on Thursday that the Czech Republic’s position on the issue of border controls within the Schengen zone was that the possibility should exist to impose temporary border controls on countries which do not adhere to Schengen regulations. A majority of EU member states supported expanded border controls in the bloc’s free-travel zone, as some southern member states struggle with an influx of migrants from North Africa.

The EC has warned Prague it will not subsidize overpriced or non-transparent projects from EU funds. The warning came shortly after the commission blocked the flow of EU structural funds to two regions in the Czech Republic on suspicion of irregularities. In response to the warning the Czech Transport Ministry withdrew subsidy requests to the tune of 110 million crowns, saying it wanted to review the infrastructure construction projects in order to make sure that they were fully in line with EC requirements.