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According to a fresh survey by the STEM agency, the satisfaction of Czechs with their country’s membership in the EU has reached an all-time low. Exactly half of the respondents polled said that they were pleased that their country was a member of the union, the lowest figure yet since the Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004. Sixty-nine percent of the 1286 respondents answered that they believed the union’s decisions lacked direction, while only 48 percent said they would vote to join the EU again if a referendum was held today. In 2004’s referendum, over 77 percent of Czechs voted in favor of joining.

The Czech government has been through a great deal in the nine months since the three-party coalition was formed. While struggling with wide-ranging systemic reforms, the ministries have been hit by one scandal after another, culminating in a major government crisis this month, in which it was unclear whether the coalition would survive. In a special feature today we talk with the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and chairman of the Civic Democratic Party, Petr Nečas, about the issues that the government has faced and where it stands now.

Starting May 1st, Czechs will be able to work in Germany and Austria without any restrictions. The day marks the expiration of legislation that limited access to the German and Austrian labor markets for citizens from newer EU member states. In the past, Czechs as well as citizens from other more recent member states had to apply for a work permit with the German or Austrian authorities to be able to work in either country. The expiration of this legislation will put an end to a seven-year transition period that started in 2004, when the Czech Republic, along with states such as Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, joined the EU, but their citizens were not free to seek employment in Germany or Austria without applying for a work permit first. German experts do not expect that a significant number of citizens from abroad will flood the German labor market.

The European Commission has decided that spreadable butter, a traditional product from the Czech Republic, will not be granted the EU’s specialty label. The commission argued that the name, spreadable butter, was deceiving, since the product only contains about 30 percent of milk fat, while under EU regulations, any spread labeled butter has to contain at least 80 percent of milk fat. The commission added that the name could mislead some EU consumers. This is the first case in which the commission has turned down a request by the Czech Republic for one of its products to be granted the specialty label.

A government bill allowing foreigners to purchase residential real estate and land in the Czech Republic is in its final reading in Parliament. The prohibition was an exemption that the country demanded upon acceding to the EU and expires this May. Foreign companies based in the Czech Republic however already own land in the tens of thousands of hectares. The exemption prohibiting foreigners from purchasing residential real estate has already expired. Opposition parliamentarians have asked that the government extend the exemption by another three years.

Last week the European Commission confirmed the world’s most powerful laser known as ELI (which stands for Light Infrastructure) will be developed in the town of Dolní Břežany, near Prague. At the cost of 6.7 billion crowns, the laser could spur breakthroughs in everything from nuclear physics to medical diagnosis, treatment and therapy.

The Czech Republic has lost a case against the European Commission at the EU Court of Justice for compensation for improper use of pre-accession funds. Brussels wanted the country to return 9.4 million euros that were used in contravention of EU regulations, but the Czech Republic never did so. The European Commission then took 10.8 million euros out of planned payments for the country, and Prague took the situation to court. The Finance Ministry is to decide whether to contest the decision.

The European Commission is considering suspending payments into the Environment and North-West operational programmes run by the Czech Ministry for Local Development, deputy minister Daniel Braun told the ctk news agency on Thursday. Mr. Braun said the commission was reportedly considering the move in connection with cited shortcomings in management. Earlier this week the European Commission suspended payments into the Enterprise and Innovations programme, run by the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, citing non-transparent evaluations.

The European Commission has suspended payments into the Enterprise and Innovations Operation Programme, run by the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, the news website Česká pozice reported on Monday. A spokeswoman for the Commissioner for Regional Policy said the European Commission was concerned over “certain financial circumstances” of the programme. In a letter to the ministry, the commission reportedly pointed out shortcomings in management and control and a lack of transparency in project evaluation, among other things. The Industry and Trade Ministry said they did not agree with the commission’s decision, and is working on a reply that should explain the functioning of the programme which should make some 90 billion crowns available to Czech entrepreneurs by 2013.

The proposed overhaul of the EU’s common agriculture policy after 2013 should lower subsidies for Czech farmers, the European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos told reporters in Prague on Monday. The 27-member-bloc’s planed reform of its agriculture policies should among other things introduce limits for basic agriculture subsidies; Czech farmers fear this could reduce subsidies by around 12 billion crowns per year.