News Czech Republic may miss out on CZK 10 billion in EU research funding, says minister
The Czech Republic may fail to draw on up CZK 10 billion of European Union funding available for research and development projects, the minister of education, Marcel Chládek, said on Tuesday. Mr. Chládek said he hoped to cut that figure by around CZK 4 billion. Previous estimates had suggested that around CZK 7.5 billion of potential EU funding for that area would not be accessed. A programme for research and development administered by the Ministry of Education is building six major scientific centres around the country. However, legislation on public tenders was complicating the use of EU money for those projects, Mr. Chládek said.
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Man receives seven years in prison for hit-and-run incident
A court in Prague on Friday sentenced a 24-year-old man to seven years in prison for killing a woman in a hit-and-run incident. Last August, Marek Půček drove his black BMW into a bus stop at Prague’s district of Smíchov, hitting a 21-year-old woman who died at the scene. He abandoned the car and fled before turning himself in to the police later that day after his photo appeared in the media. The man received a suspended sentence for breaking into cars and shops in the past.
Clean-up of former chemical plant in Ostrava to be completed by 2022
The cleaning up of toxic sludge left by the former chemical plant Ostramo in Ostrava should be completed by 2022, Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mládek said on Friday. The most offensive waste is expected to be dealt with already by the end of 2016.The polluted lagoons remain one of the major ecological problems for the Czech Republic. Some 200,000 tonnes of waste was removed in the past but thousands more were unexpectedly uncovered. The winner of a tender to remove the additional sediment should be chosen by the end of March.
Transport of munition from Vrbětice to continue on Saturday
The transport of munition from the Vrbětice depot, which was severely damaged last year by a blast, to an army storage site in Květná will continue on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Zlín police department told the ctk news agency on Friday. Thirty-one lorries with munition belonging to several private companies have so far been removed from the site. According to the Interior Ministry, there were some 7,000 tonnes of ammunition, including some 1,000 tonnes of explosives, in the storage facility at the time of the blast. The ministry expects it will take up to 400 lorries to remove all the material.
Poll suggests Czechs less inclined to favour Romanies, Russians and Arabs
Czechs are less inclined to favour Arabs, Romanies and Albanians, suggests a new poll conducted by the CVVM agency, focusing on Czechs’ perception of 17 foreign nationalities living in the country. Slovaks have traditionally been regarded as the most popular foreigners in the Czech Republic, with 84 percent of respondents appreciating their eastern neighbours. And despite a slight drop in sympathies, Greeks and Jews remain among the five best perceived foreign nationalities living in the Czech Republic, along with Slovaks, Germans and Hungarians. On the other side of the scale are Roma, followed by Russians, Ukrainians, Albanians and Arabs.
Czech Statistics Office: Czech agriculture show record profit for 2014
Czech farmers made a record profit in 2014, according to the figures released by the Czech Statistics Office on Friday. Agricultural earnings increased by nearly 40 percent, to 22.9 billion crowns, which represents the best results since 1989, when monitoring started. The record figure is the result of an extraordinarily good harvest and higher subsidies. The value of agricultural production increased by more than eight billion crowns compared with 2013 to 136.6 billion. Revenues from cultivation of crops reached 79.5 billion and livestock production rebounded after several years of decline to total 51.6 billion.
Military head Petr Pavel visits Czech soldiers in Mali
The chief of staff of the Czech army Petr Pavel on Thursday visited Czech soldiers serving in the EU training mission in war damaged Mali. General Pavel, who is set to take a senior NATO post next summer, met with the mission head Alfons García-Vaquero, who thanked him for the excellent work of the Czech soldiers. The Czech Army on Thursday started rotating its soldiers taking part in the mission. The Czech unit in the African state is responsible for guarding the mission’s headquarters, escorting convoys, and the training of new soldiers. The state in Central Africa was the subject of civil strife when Islamic rebels took over a large part of the county.
Jeseníky Mountain rescue service calls avalanche alert
The mountain rescue service in Jeseníky Mountains has called a third degree avalanche alert on a five point scale. Relatively mild temperatures, strong winds and heavy snowfall over the past few days are reported to have created a highly unstable layer of snow on many slopes. Skiers have been warned not to take risks or stray from marked trails.
Czechs win gold at 2015 International Biathlon Union World Championships
The Czech Republic claimed the first gold medal of the 2015 International Biathlon Union World Championships with a victory in the mixed relay in Kontiolahti, Finland on Thursday. Despite facing tough conditions, with soft deep snow and temperatures above freezing, the winning team of Veronika Vítková, Gabriela Soukalová, Michal Šlesingr and Ondřej Moravec finished in a time of 1:20:27.2. The silver medal went to the French team while Norway took the bronze.
Majority of Czechs in favor of electronic voting
Fifty-seven percent of Czechs say they would welcome the introduction of electronic voting, according to the results of a survey conducted by the STEM agency. Politicians are increasingly open to the idea and the Christian Democrats of the ruling coalition have said they would like to see the option introduced as of 2017. Electronic voting was the subject of a seminar in the lower house on Thursday at which MPs could discuss various aspects of this practice. Estonia was the first and so far only European country to introduce electronic voting eight years ago.
PM backs education minister in matter of financing
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has thrown his weight behind Education Minister Marcel Chládek who is radically opposed to a proposed cut in financing for the education sector in 2016. Finance Minister Andrej Babiš has proposed slashing the education and research budget by more than a billion crowns next year which the education minister says would have devastating consequences. Following a meeting with Minister Chládek and university rectors on Thursday Prime Minister Sobotka said that he too disagreed with the proposed cuts saying that economizing in the education sector would not increase the country’s competitiveness in the years to come. This year the education sector is operating on 22 billion crowns.
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