The Czech Republic must construct new blocks at the Temelín and Dukovany nuclear power plants, situated in south Bohemia and south Moravia, even if it means violating European law, PM Andrej Babiš (ANO) told the lower house EU affairs committee.
ANO would win a general election in January, followed by the Pirates and Civic Democrats (ODS), according to the Kantar CZ election model released by the public Czech Television.
The Czech Republic has to support science, research, innovations, and digitalization if it doesn’t want to be Europe’s assembly plant, said Czech PM Andrej Babiš during his opening speech at the Digital Czechia 2019 conference.
Věra Jourová is likely to continue in her position as the Czech European Commissioner. As reported by Seznam, PM Andrej Babiš personally promised her re-nomination for the next five years.
Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček is planning an official visit to the United States. He is due to meet with his American counterpart, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. The two will discuss the possible reception of Czech PM Babiš at the White House.
The Czech Republic wants to build a center for 50 orphans in Syria and it will eventually extend that number. It will launch a special foundation for this purpose and will try to gain money from donors, PM Andrej Babiš (ANO) said after meeting Syrian Arab Red Crescent representatives.
ANO movement led by PM Andrej Babiš will spend some 30 million CZK on its campaign for the upcoming European elections. This is by far the most spent out of all competing parties.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš met with his Libyan counterpart Fayez Sarraj in Prague and showed support to his cabinet in Tripoli, which is officially recognized as the Libyan government by the UN. Babiš also expressed his hopes that the EU will be more active in helping Libya tackle illegal migration.
The four highest-ranking representatives of the country - PM Andrej Babiš, Speakers of both Chambers of the Parliament Jaroslav Kubera and Radek Vondráček, and President Miloš Zeman - met at Prague castle to discuss foreign policy issues.
Helping Czechs and Czech companies are the main priorities of Dita Charanzova, leader of the ANO in the upcoming EP elections. In an interview, she said that the EU should go back to the beginnings of integration and that the biggest problem is currently migration.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis has appointed Milena Hrdinkova as the Secretary of State for European Affairs. She replaces Ales Chmelar, who left this key post at the Office of the Government two months ago.
The turnout at the European elections is traditionally low in the Czech Republic, and even though we can assume that an aggravated political situation and a hot topic of migration will draw in more voters, we cannot expect miracles, political commentator Viliam Buchert predicts.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, accompanied by Industry and Trade Minister Marta Novakova and representatives of 42 companies, will pay a week-long visit to Singapore, Thailand and India aimed to help diversify Czech exports.
Leading Czech politicians are set to visit the Visegrad countries this year. At the same time, the Czech Republic will host the V4 summit and the presidents of all four countries will meet in the Czech Republic in autumn.
"Our trade relations with Africa are inadequate and the trade turnover with individual countries is the same," noted Czech PM Andrej Babiš during the Forum Africa-Europe in Vienna.
The UN General Assembly officially approved the pact on Wednesday by a vote of 152 countries. The Czech Republic and four other states were against, 12 abstained and 24 didn’t vote, including Slovakia.
The high point of Vienna’s Europe-Africa Forum for the Czech Republic was a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who is also an acting chair of the African Union.
Hundreds of businessmen and politicians from both European and African Unions are heading to Vienna to deepen economic cooperation between the two continents. The Czech representation led by PM Babiš will be one of the biggest.
The Czech Republic could be under certain circumstances expelled from Schengen, said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel at the EU summit. It is an absurd threat, his Czech counterpart Andrej Babiš said.
On Friday, the Czech Prime Minister and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will meet in Prague to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries and European politics.
The Czech government survived a no-confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies that took place after seven hours of emotional debate. With 101 votes required, only 92 MPs voted for the measure, 90 voted against it, and 18 abstained. The Social Democrats (CSSD) skipped the vote to allow the government to survive.
When Prime Minister Babiš attended a commemorative ceremony of the 1968 occupation there was public uproar. He then laid flowers at the 17th November memorial which backfired as well.
In an interview for TV station Barrandov, Prime Minister Andrej Babis refused to call the current situation as a government crisis. “It is the crisis of parliament and deputies who are bored. They do not have an own agenda, so they only deal with the Anti-Babis case,” Babis said.
"I believe that the truth is on my side and am not going to resign despite the demonstrations," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said in an exclusive interview with Nova TV.
Even if Babiš’s government lost the confidence vote, President Miloš Zeman would still appoint Andrej Babiš to form a government. The president made his declaration during the TV show ‘A week with the President’.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš categorically rejected allegations that his son was kidnapped. He also called two journalists, who traced and questioned his son, hyenas.
Czech PM Andrej Babiš is among a number of leaders to arrive in Palermo at the behest of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. However, analysts do not have high expectations for the meeting due to missing key world leaders.
As a key challenge for the European Union, the Czech PM identified migration, border protection and, above all, the promotion of the free market and the inclusion of all member states in the Schengen Area.
The Czech Republic will probably not join the Global Compact for Migration. The government will debate the document next week, however, according to Foreign Minister Petříček, it is already clear that the cabinet will not support the accession to the pact. The treaty was also criticized by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš due to its possible disruption of national sovereignty.
The relationship between the Czech Republic and the EU was one of many topics during the first interview between Milos Zeman and Andrej Babis on Czech TV.
Andrej Babiš criticized the Global Compact (GCM) migration agreement to be signed in Marrakesh in December. “It cannot be, that the European Commission has more authority than the governments of member states,” says the Czech prime minister in an interview for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
Andrej Babiš and Peter Pellegrini participated in a special debate surrounding the 100th anniversary of the independent Czechoslovak state. Pellegrini believes that Slovakia is matured and the country could be led by a talented politician regardless of the place of his birth.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš planned to deliver a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg in January. However, sources tell Info.cz that it has been canceled.
The Czech Prime Minister met with billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates during his visit to Brussels. They debated development aid funding, a field in which Gates and his wife are highly active.
Frontex doesn’t need additional resources, its capacities are sufficient, repeated Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš to the media during the EU summit in Brussels.
Andrej Babiš said during the EU28 leaders’ summit that he could dust off his Moroccan contacts and deal with the country regarding migration on behalf of the EU.
Czech PM Andrej Babiš and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki share skepticism over an enlargement of Frontex and its budget increase. During Babiš’s visit to Warsaw, they agreed on issues relating to migration as well as other topics expected at the upcoming summit.
For the first time, Czech European policy could be shaped by a woman. Eva Srnová, a regional policy expert at the Permanent Representation in Brussels, is the top candidate to replace Aleš Chmelař as the State Secretary for European Affairs.
Speaking at the Committee on European Affairs meeting, the Czech PM said there is no reason to increase Frontex´s staff from 1,500 to 10,000 as planned. Member States should ensure the protection of the external borders themselves.
Czech PM Andrej Babiš plans several foreign visits in the next two weeks. In Poland, he will visit the headquarters of the Frontex agency and meet Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Babiš then travels to Austria and the European summit in Brussels.
The Andrej Babiš-related media group Mafra is strengthening its position on the Slovak market. According to omediach.com the group will shortly announce buying dozens of magazine titles from German-owned Bauer Media.
Babis’s ANO party remains the most popular group in the country. It has won all regional capitals except two – Prague and Liberec. Right-wing Civic democratic Party (ODS) strengthened its position as well as the Pirate Party.
The EU member states agreed to use a so called reverse charge system in a fight against tax evasions. In a reaction on Twitter Babiš praised his colleagues, saying it’s the first time the Czechs convinced the European Commission to propose something they wanted.
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