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Czechia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan: Latest state of play
Under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), Czechia's national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) had an initial value of €7 036 million in grants only. In June 2022, its initial RRF grant allocation was revised upwards to €7 673.7 million (+ 9.1 %). In June 2023, Czechia submitted a request to modify its NRRP. The amended plan totals €9 231.3 million and now includes a REPowerEU chapter with an additional grant allocation of €680.5 million. Czechia also requested to transfer its remaining ...
Czechia's climate action strategy
Czechia does not have a national climate target, and aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with EU climate and energy legislation. Czechia accounted for 3.6 % of the EU's net GHG emissions in 2023. The country reduced its net emissions by 25.6 % over the 2005-2023 period, which is less than the EU average reduction of 30.5 %. As shown in Figure 1, Czechia significantly reduced emissions from sectors under the EU emissions trading system (ETS). Czechia's net emissions have been impacted ...
Economic Dialogue and Exchange of Views with the President of the Council (ECOFIN)
Zbyněk Stanjura, Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic, is participating in the ECON Committee in his capacity of President of the ECOFIN Council during the Czech Presidency (July-December 2022). In accordance with the Treaty of the Union, “Member States shall regard their economic policies as a matter of common concern and shall coordinate them within the Council”. This briefing provides an overview of the Czech Presidency priorities in ECON matters, including the Council’s work relating to ...
Priority dossiers under the Czech EU Council Presidency
Czechia is a parliamentary republic with a head of government – the prime minister – and a head of state – the president. The current Prime Minister is Petr Fiala, from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). He has been in office since November 2021 and was preceded by Andrej Babiš (2017-2021), the founder of the party ANO 2011. Czech President Miloš Zeman was first elected to the post in 2013 and had previously served as prime minister, from 1998 to 2002. The supreme executive body is the government. ...
Václav Havel: Advocate of an undivided Europe
Despite a 'bourgeois' family background, which was a disqualification in communist-led Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel rapidly became an internationally acclaimed playwright. However, his unequivocally proclaimed ethical principles soon put him at odds with the communist regime, resulting in several prison sentences. Havel nevertheless held fast to his belief that moral integrity was a question of necessity, not choice, and attempted to live up to this ideal. The 1989 collapse of the regime made Havel ...
Partial renewal of members of the European Court of Auditors
On 10 January 2022, Ϸվ's Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) held a hearing on the partial renewal of members of the European Court of Auditors (ECA). Subsequently, CONT gave a favourable opinion on three candidates: Czech nominee Jan Gregor (renewal), Latvian nominee Mihails Kozlovs (renewal) and Slovenian nominee Kristijan Petrovič (new candidate). CONT gave an unfavourable opinion, however, on the renewal of Polish nominee Marek Opioła's mandate. A plenary vote is scheduled for the January ...
Nominations for Members of the European Court of Auditors
The Policy Department for Budgetary Affairs in the European Ϸվ (EP) is about to draw up an in-house briefing on national nomination procedures for Members of the European Court of Auditors (ECA). The purpose of the briefing is to provide relevant information to the Members of the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) ahead of hearings of Members-designate of the ECA (of which there will be 8 in the course of 2022). In order to develop a better understanding of the national procedures, we ...
Climate action in Czechia: Latest state of play
The EU binding climate and energy legislation for 2030 requires Member States to adopt national energy and climate plans (NECPs) covering the period 2021 to 2030. In October 2020, the European Commission published an assessment for each NECP. Czechia generates 3.5 % of the EU's total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has reduced emissions at a slower pace than the EU average since 2005. With high levels of energy-intensive industry in the Czech economy, the country's emissions intensity is significantly ...
Disinformation and Science: A survey of the gullibility of students with regard to false scientific news
The main aim of this report is to present and discuss the results of a survey concerning perspectives on fake news among undergraduate university students in central Europe and northern Italy. The survey was carried out in spring 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. An online questionnaire was used. The report is therefore the product of what could be achieved under highly unusual circumstances and should serve as a pointer for further studies. Misinformation is always troubling, especially in ...
States of emergency in response to the coronavirus crisis: Situation in certain Member States IV
With the virulence of the coronavirus pandemic gradually diminishing, and in the light of the restrictive measures adopted by Member States, attention remains on the way chosen by the various states to respond to the crisis. With states at various stages of relaxing emergency constraints, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are likely to last in terms of health, economic, social, psychological and possibly even political impact. Although public attention is now turned towards the widely differing ...