100 posts
Conservatively speaking
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The paper on Czech conservatism in Liblice has now appeared in a conference paper archive on the website of the Henrich Boell Foundation, who jointly sponsored the event with the Institute for Contemporary History in Prague. There are also some much...
Dr Novák Goes to Prague
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As the last 2009 issue of the news magazine Respekt points out, one of the few political players who will be able look back on difficult, confusing and not very good year for Czech politics is caretaker Prime Minister, Jan Fischer. Chosen for his...
Educating future EU Council Presidencies ─ Czech example
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Today and tomorrow the Trans European Policy Studies Association TEPSA and the Real Instituto Elcano arrange a conference on the Spanish EU Council presidency 2010, which starts the 18 month trio presidency Spain-Belgium-Hungary. See Spain: Presidenc...
Czech EU mysteries explained
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Is the Czech Republic a constructive and contributing member of the European Union, or still lost in Europe after prolonged Soviet occupation and Communist rule?EU citizens have been mystified by Czech happenings in 2009. Czech president Vaclav Klaus...
Acknowledgement but action?
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Although there are no official statistics on the number of Roma women who have undergone forced sterilisation in the Czech Republic, there seems to be an increasing recognition of the problem; that the government “expressed regret” yester...
Czechoslovakia and historical vinegar
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CzechoslovakiaA chequered history Nov 19th 2009From The Economist print editionCzechoslovakia was born out of trickery and died in failure. Only up to a pointCzechoslovakia: The State That Failed. By Mary Heimann. Yale University Press; 406 pages; $4...
Darkness after twenty years
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It is not about energy security, as you might guess after Brazilian black out and new Ukrainian negotiations on gas delivery. This is supposed to be about how we, Czechs in particular, and Central Europeans in general, feel twenty years after what on...
The Czech right: culture, folk roots and a bit of fusion
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Public engagement is flavour of the month just now, so when asked out of the ether to contribute something about Czech politics to the launch issue of cultural-political monthly intended to fill the gap left by the winding up of the long-established...
Chasing Brussels #6
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Episode 6 of everyone's favourite EU politics podcast (I think that's specific enough to be true)is out now.This week we discuss the lengths to which the EU went to get Klaus' signature on the dotted line. What does this tell us about the EU's politi...
Klaus signs, Lisbon Treaty fully ratified
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Source: EurActive Czech President Václav Klaus again surprised friends and foes alike by signing his country’s Lisbon Treaty ratification today (3 November) at 15.00 CET, just hours after the Czech Constitutional Court had given the text its g...
Klaus Has Signed the Treaty of Lisbon!
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Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the ratification documents for the Treaty of Lisbon after the decision of the Czech Constitutional Court. The Treaty of Lisbon can enter into force on December, 1st or January, 1st.
Czech president swallows bitter pill
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There was no fanfare, no announcement beforehand. The euro-sceptic Czech president just went ahead and signed a treaty he dislikes intensely. Some had hoped he would hold out longer but his options had gone. He had won a concession...
Czech Constitutional Court Approves Ratification of Treaty of Lisbon
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The Czech Constitutional Court has ruled that that the Treaty of Lisbon, and ratification of it, does not contravene the Czech constitutional order. The Court says that it does not consider it possible, in view of the role that it plays in the consti...
A deal with the Czechs
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So, a deal was struck with the Czech Republic to get the Lisbon treaty through. An opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, along Polish and British lines, was added to the treaty, and that was enough to satisfy the Czech president, Vaclav Kl...
EU Lisbon Treaty cleared by Czech Court
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“Lisbon Treaty in line with Czech Constitution – court”, reports Czech Happenings (3 November 2009). The Czech Constitutional Court in Brno has issued a press release as well as the core sentences of its judgment in English. (More is promised...
Ok from court in Brno
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I just received the message that the constitutional court in Brno have dismissed the complaint by the 17 senators regarding the Lissbon Treaty. That is very good news and thereby there are no legal or constitutional obstacles for President Klaus to s...
Phew, it was Klaus
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After taking a pleasant bike ride in a Belgian village, watching the surprisingly cloudless sky and the colourful autumn sunset, I set my mind on a very related topic. Climate change and the upcoming Copenhagen summit would be a perfect match, I admi...
Klaus relents on Lisbon - but how far?
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Today's Times reports that Václav Klaus has relented - or is about to relent - and will sign the Lisbon Treaty in the coming weeks if some Irish-style deal to assuage his concerns about possible legal challenges to the 1945-6 Beneš Decrees expelli...
Czech Republic and Lisbon: The wisdom of crowds?
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Anyone in any doubt about the mobilising power of the Lisbon Treaty as an issue in the Czech Republic should check out the size of the crowds in the recent demonstrations (for and against President Klaus) outside Prague Castle.
Pandora’s box?
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President Klaus seems to be looking for an exit strategy. Apparently he has explained in a radio interview that his famous “footnote” can also be added to the next Treaty that will have to be ratified by all member states, for instance in...
EU Charter and Beneš Decrees
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Statewatch has published an analysis by Professor Steve Peers: “The Beneš Decrees and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights” (12 October 2009; 14 pages)Peers’ analysis addresses four issues:1) What is the scope of the EU Charter of Fundamental...
Klaus Will Sign?
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Die Welt says that Czech President Vaclav Klaus has abandoned his fight against the Treaty of Lisbon. The newspaper cites an interview in Lidove Noviny, but fails to specify any timing. It is very difficult to assess this information.
Anyone Notice? EU Treaty Already Assures Czech Sovereignty
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As the fuss continues about whether or not Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, will sign the European Union’s Lisbon treaty, I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to a detail that appears to have been generally overlooked. It con...
With Vaclav Klaus only seeing is believing
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Vaclav Klaus’ “heroic” stand against the EU Treaty of Lisbon was draining away his support faster than you can say General Custer. What were his options? Yesterday, 17 October 2009, Czech Happenings published main points of the interview Czech...
EU Lisbon Treaty: Vaclav Klaus was losing support
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On 17 October 2009 Czech Happenings reported a new SANEP poll, which indicated that President Vaclav Klaus was rapidly losing support for his rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon. Some 58 percent ─ up 14 percentage points from the beginning of October...
Unstoppable train?
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Swedish Radio reports that according to an interview published today (17/10 2009) President Klaus says that the “Lisbon Treaty has gone to far to be stopped at this moment however much some of us would like it.” This is the link to the...
From Russia With Love: Vaclav Klaus the darling of Russia's media
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KGB asset Klaus is in demand among his old friends from story fromPresseurop on Klaus's state visit to Russia last week. He also promised his pay masters that he will never sign the Lisbon Treaty on the visit.Time to impeach the old traitor to his Pr...
EU Lisbon Treaty: Czech polls stink
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Czech Happenings reported on a SANEP poll, which said that 43 per cent of Czechs think that President Vaclav Klaus should immediately sign the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon, and 44 percent of people were convinced that postponing the signature harms the Cz...
Czech President Klaus’ Civic Democrat Party is a Member of ECR Tory Group
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In 2009 prima donna President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic founded the Czech Civic Democratic Party (Obcanska demokraticka strana, abbreviated to ODS), which vies for the title of the most right-wing political party in the Czech Republic. The O...
EU Lisbon Treaty: Czech or European solution?
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On this blog, we have expressed some doubts about the robustness of the Czech constitutional system, in plain crisis. In the European Voice, Adam Drda adds his observations on how president Vaclav Klaus is stoking up irrational fears and pulling the...
Czechs are not Klaus
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Press release: Even I am not an official spokeperson of Czech nation, nor Czech government and of Czech president not at all, I would like to share with the rest of Europe following statements: 1) I am not Eurooptimist in sense that I would believe...
Vaclav and Goliath
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Vaclav Klaus is in Moscow today, no doubt enjoying the Kremlin’s approbation for the fat middle finger he waved at Europe last week. As the Western media likes to point out, the Czech president is fond of likening the European Union to the So...
EU Lisbon Treaty: Clear summary of Czech problem
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“Klaus keeps EU guessing on future of Lisbon Treaty – Prague is keeping the rest of the EU waiting”, is a clear EUobserver summary of an unclear situation, written by Honor Mahony. Recommended reading for all Czech and EU citizens, with matters...
EU Lisbon Treaty: Czech internal clarification
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Following his meeting with Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso spoke of the need to “find a solution for the issues not yet clarified internally” in the Czech Republic. It is no exaggeration to call it a...
Will he won't he
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Czech President Vaclav Klaus is causing a real storm over in Brussels with his refusal to sign the Lisbon Treaty. Having previously suggested that his signature would follow the outcome of the new constitutional court challenge filed by a group of Se...
Two weeks away from signing Lisbon? Bad awakening in two years?
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The end of October might bring the final breakthrough for the Lisbon Treaty, or so it seems. The Czech Constitutional Court will deliberate on the challenge by 17 Czech senators on the Lisbon Treaty by October 27. It is expected that a decision follo...
Vaclav Klaus demands the imaginary and the impossible
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EurActiv has some additional information about the latest condition by Czech President Vaclav Klaus to sign the ratification instrument for the EU Treaty of Lisbon, in “Klaus links EU treaty signature to WWII claims” (12 October 2009). According...
Klaus’s Sudeten German protest is last throw of dice on Lisbon
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It was inevitable, I think, that Czech President Vaclav Klaus would take his last stand against the European Union’s Lisbon treaty on the Sudeten German issue. This has been one of the most highly charged themes of Czech politics since the...
Surprise, surprise
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So President Klaus has set a condition for his signature of the Lisbon Treaty - he wants to get an opt-out for his country from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. There's no way this concession will be granted. Is this the final curtain for the Treat...
Klaus Demands New Declaration in Treaty of Lisbon
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The Czech president Vaclav Klaus has demanded an opt-out for the Czech Republic from the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union, similar to that obtained earlier by Britain and Poland, in order to sign the Treaty of Lisbon. This would re...
Klaus opting out
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There is an element of farce creeping into the drama of the Czech Republic and the Lisbon Treaty. We now know what President Klaus's conditions are for signing the treaty - or rather I think we do. To start with,...
British voters: Václav Klaus needs you!
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As in all the best action thrillers, it comes down to this: one man holds the fate of Europe in his hands. Unfortunately - or for those of a certain ideological disposition, fortunately - that man is not Arnie Schwarzenegger or Claude van Damme, but...
EU Lisbon Treaty: Czech constitutional crisis
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More than two years after the beginning of the negotiations on the EU Lisbon Treaty, President Vaclav Klaus has suddenly repudiated the Czech government and parliament, by demanding an exemption from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Klaus’ 10...
Chasing Brussels #3
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The third Chasing Brussels episode is out now, with the Irish Referendum as the topic. We also discuss Czech ratification, Tory attitudes to the EU and the Lisbon Treaty, and Tony Blair's possible canditature for the post of President of the European...
Czech OK to Lisbon 'in weeks'
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Prague: If some Tories were hoping that the Eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus would delay signing the Lisbon Treaty until they were in power next year, today was not encouraging. Czech Ministers were out to reassure Brussels that ratification...
Don't bet on Klaus caving in
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The consensus out there (FT Blog, Daily Telegraph, the very interesting Seifert/Litobarski podcast, Centre for European Reform) seems to be that Czech president Václav Klaus will cave in to pressure from all quarters and complete his country's ratif...
Lisbon Treaty to be "fast-tracked" through Czech Court
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The last shreds of hope are being blown away. According to reports today at a meeting in Brussels between Jan Fischer, the Czech PM, Barroso and Buzek, the new Prseident of teh European Parliament, Fisher told a press conference,""Everything is in pl...
Punish Czechs over Lisbon treaty? Remember the Haider affair…
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With Czech President Vaclav Klaus the chief remaining obstacle to final ratification of the European Union’s Lisbon treaty, there has been a fair amount of loose talk about how the Czech Republic could - or should - be punished if Klaus refuse...
Is Europe Klaus Country? I Think Not.
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When you fly into Prague on Czech Airlines, they start playing The Moldau, Bedrich Smetana’s bucolic ode to his country, from Má vlast (My Country), his set of 19th century symphonic poems. You can almost hear the river Vltava flowing. Now, I...
The Unreligious Czechs
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Pope Benedict XVI’s three-day visit to the Czech Republic was capped off with an open-air mass in Stará Boleslav which coincided with St. Wenceslas Day. The symbolism was obvious; a mass on the name-day of the Czech patron saint, in the town wher...
Pressure on Klaus to Sign Ratification Papers
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There is mounting pressure on the Czech President Vaclav Klaus to sign ratification papers for the Treaty of Lisbon. Klaus has argued that he cannot sign now due to the new pending appeal at the Czech Constitutional Court. Polish newspaper Rzeczpospo...
Lisbon Treaty: awaiting Santa Klaus
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25 down, two to go. With the Irish referendum behind us, the focus is now on Poland and the Czech Republic. Polish President Lech Kaczy?ski will presumably honour his commitment to sign the ratification instrument if the Irish vote in favour. T...
The Czechs will probably ratify the Lisbon treaty this year
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by Charles GrantAny prediction about the timing of the Czech Republic’s ratification of the Lisbon treaty must be heavily qualified; politics in Prague are so complex and opaque that many Czechs find it hard to understand what is going on. But havi...
Waiting for Klaus
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So there we have it – apparent confirmation of UK Tory leader David Cameron’s intention to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. It emerged yesterday that Cameron in July sent a letter to Vaclav Klaus to support the Czech president’s defi...
Here we go again…
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According to the BBC website a group of Czech parliamentarians, with a clear blessing from the President Klaus, is cooking a petition to the Constitutional Court. I am afraid this is not an internal domestic issue but a major setback to the Europea...
Czech hand-wringing over EU Lisbon Treaty
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“Czech govt wants country to ratify Lisbon treaty by year’s end” reports Ceskenoviny.cz (23 September 2009).So would every other government in the EU member states, and so would 26 national parliaments, which have approved the Lisbon Treaty. So...
Vaclav Klaus forces EU Commission reduction?
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Anders Selnes on the Swedish EU portal Europaportalen.se quotes EU Minister Cecilia Malmström saying that the regrettable refusal of Czech President Vaclav Klaus to sign the approved Lisbon Treaty may force the Swedish Council Presidency to present...
New EU Commission delayed?
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The BBC tells us that a ”Czech move could delay EU treaty” (22 September 2009). At least 17 Czech Senators are going to submit a petition to the Czech Constitutional Court, which “guesses” that it will need three or four months to settle the...
Klaus has got crazy
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Czech president Vaclav Klaus, who I consider more and more not MY president, is in the US. Beside his obvious remarks on climate change he delivered a speech and then interview to conservative daily Washington Times, where he mentioned with referenc...
Czech Republic: Elections to be held as scheduled shock
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I'm sitting in my parents-in-laws sixth floor flat in Brno with a glass of my father-in-law's red wine at one elbow and Czech-English dictionary at the other. Having spent all summer finishing various conference papers at short notice, I've been a co...
The Czech Nation and Its Past and Present Identity
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the modern concept of homogeneous nation to which the contemporary Czechs subscribe is, notwithstanding the belief of the Czechs to the contrary, exactly that – a modern ‘invention’ that cannot stand up to a more closer historical scrutiny...
Visas: round two.
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The Canadian government’s decision to reimpose visa requirements on Czech citizens exemplifies the lack of understanding surrounding the issue of Roma asylum seekers in this country; it is not a solution but rather an avoidance of a solution. A...
Famous for E15 seconds...
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My views on the much maligned Czech presidency of the EU are quoted by the Czech online journal e15.cz and then even get cited in the political commentary on Czech radio.Fame at lastI am also available for weddings and barmitzvahs...
The EP elections in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
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Click here to read Donath-Burson-Marsteller’s analysis of the impact of the European elections on politics in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
D+1: Ireland and Czech Republic
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After the UK and the Netherlands, today it's the turn of Ireland and Czech Republic to vote.Good luck to the Labour Party and the CSSD!
Czech Republic: 22 chairs, 33 ballots [Jiří Suchomel]
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Next week is the week of decision. I’m still not sure who to choose… For the next term, we have less chairs in the European Parliament - 22 instead of 24. But the number of political subjects has increased from 32 to 33. They are listed...
Czechs set to deny Libertas a seat
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Ganley has wasted his cash in the Czech Republic as predictions show Libertas will fail to get any seats. This undercuts the reason Ganley says people should vote Libertas as he claims his far right party will "give people a voice" yeah right. He wan...
Libertas candidate in Czech Republic, Vladimir Zelezny, forced to pull out after conviction for fraud
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Another of Declan Ganley's pals has been convicted of fraud. Vladimir Zelezny defruaded the Czech state. So much fro transparency accountability and an end to corrupt elites.Libertas should be run out of politics. Among Ganleys corrupt pals were and...
Czech Civic Democrats: Summer dreams, but not split down the seams...
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Ladislav Mrklas of the Czech centre-right CEVRO thinktank offers an interesting, and to my mind very realistic, appraisal of the political prospects of the Civic Democratic party: factional tension has damped down prior to the euro-elections; the par...
Off it goes
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Off it goes. The piece of Czech art that managed to both amuse and outrage is to no longer grace the dreary walls of the EU’s council of ministers. Entropa by David Czerny, a clever installation playing to some of the stereotypes that EU citizens s...
Brown’s no-show at Prague summit riles the EU’s east
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The Czech hosts of Thursday’s European Union summit with six ex-Soviet states are not happy bunnies. The list of the EU leaders who couldn’t be bothered to show up for the Eastern Partnership event in Prague, a highlight of the Czechs&...
Tired Topolanek is a Coriolanus, not a Hamlet
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Just two hours after the Czech upper house of parliament passed the European Union’s Lisbon treaty on Wednesday by a comfortable margin, I found myself in the Prague offices of Mirek Topolanek, the outgoing Czech prime minister. Tired but...
The Invisible MEP [Jiří Suchomel]
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Czech Republic has 24 members of the European Parliament. I can name only a few of them. They almost disappeared from public life after the elections in 2004. (Yes, the same year as the passengers of Oceanic 815 did!) So I decided to “investiga...
That man again
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In a long line of EU summits with global counterparts, there is an EU-Japan summit on 4 May. As is customary, the European Council is represented by the presidency country which of course is the Czech Republic. And as is customary, the PM would l...
Vaclav Klaus: the EU’s naughty boy who won’t grow up
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Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, sounds like a man who intends to enjoy the next two months. In an interview last week with the Czech newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes, he merrily poured scorn on US and European Union measures to fight the world fin...
17th Session of the ACP-EU JPA (Prague)
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The G-20's response to the world food and financial crisis, and efforts to make ACP-EU economic part...
What will the campaign in Czech Republic be about? Two billboards [Matej HRUSKA]
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Czech government in demission has tough times ahead, ruling the European Council few more days, negotiating new government, preparing for new national parliament elections in October, etc. So, EP elections seems to be good chance to examine public mo...
Just how idealistic is Barack Obama?
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Barack Obama's veneer of idealism is beginning to crack a bit. Riot police help maintain the Czech government's 'courageous' stand against 70 per cent of Czechs (photo: Bruno Waterfield)...
Libertas UK leader the terror warrior Robin Matthews unconcerned about Czech Liberats leader's fraud and tax charges. Openness, Transparency ?
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MEP Zelezny to campaign for Libertas BRUSSELS – Libertas has launched its campaign for the European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic with controversial MEP Vladimir Zelezny named second on its list of candidates, writes Jamie Smyth. Mr Z...
Obamas have a romantic dinner in Prague, Czech politicians dine alone.
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President Obama arrives in Prague on Saturday on the last leg of his European odyssey in order to participate in an EU-USA summit. The Agenda of his visit is here, it includes lots of the usual formal meetings with the Czech Prime-Minister Topolanek...
The Man who would be King(maker)
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Concerns that an indirectly elected President may interfere with the formation of the next Czech government have been circulating in the Czech media, EurActiv reports. No, not Barroso (even if you'd think he could): the Czech President himself, Vacla...
Treason in the Czech Republic? Czech MPs break cover and admit they are Ganley/ Libertas stooges.
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Trojan horse MPs who helped bring down government break cover, they were working for Ganley and Libertas. The Czech people should ask Vlastimil Tlustý and Jan Schwippel what their price tag was. Libertas Nein Danke asks is their working for an irish...
Topolánek’s toppling leads to early Czech election
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Again, this isn’t me, but Manuel Alvarez-Rivera, of Election Resources On The Internet speaking: The Czech Republic will be holding an early general election later this year - nearly a year ahead of schedule - after the center-right coalition g...
Czech, Hungarian Prime Minister Resigns
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The economic and political crisis looms in Central Europe: Mirek Topolanek's minority right-wing, and Ferenc Gyurcsány's minority left-wing government failed this week. Although many would prefer a continouity in the government and later elections i...
Czech Government Topples & EU Loses its President
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From Frans European Salon: Topolanek Toppled: EU without a Leader after Czech Government Collapses -...
Czech chutzpah
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My, oh my. What an unseemly institutional mess for the European Union. Its presidency has been hijacked by Czech domestic politics, meaning the bloc is now being run by a lame-duck caretaker government. But not a particularly chastened one. Despite h...
Czech analyst says Vaclav Klaus and Libertas.cz may be Russian puppets
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Just in from EuractivAnalyst: Czech president is under Russian influence Published: Wednesday 25 March 2009 Many people in the Czech Republic consider their Eurosceptic president Václav Klaus to be influenced by Moscow, Lukas Pachta,...
Paging Vaclav Klaus
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The response to yesterday’s no-confidence vote in the Czech government, holder of the EU Council Presidency, was a standard “move along folks, nothing to see here”. Normal service would not be interrupted, the remaining 3 months o...
