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Europe & World

Czechia in Europe and the world: the EU, its neighbours, trade and what decisions abroad mean at home.

42 articles4 guides · 33 explainers · 1 list · 4 FAQsUpdated 12 Oct 2026

Featured guide

Car rental at Prague airport: what to know before booking

The online price is rarely the final one. Excess cover, fuel, cross-border fees and the motorway vignette decide what a Czech rental really costs.

Czech motorways need an electronic vignette linked to the number plate; ask whether your rental car already has one before you pay for another (as of 2026; check edalnice.cz).
Taking a hire car out of Czechia usually needs the rental firm's permission, and some countries are excluded or carry a surcharge.
Czechia has a zero-alcohol limit for drivers, dipped headlights are required all year, and winter tyres are required in winter conditions between 1 November and 31 March (check the Ministry of Transport).

6 min read · Updated 12 Oct 2026

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Explainer
21 of 720: how Czechia elects its MEPs and what they do in Brussels
One national constituency, a 5% threshold and a Friday and Saturday vote. How Czech voters choose their MEPs, and how EU residents can take part.
5 min
Guide
Car rental at Prague airport: what to know before booking
The online price is rarely the final one. Excess cover, fuel, cross-border fees and the motorway vignette decide what a Czech rental really costs.
6 min
Explainer
Central Europe: how to define the region Czechs insist they belong to
The UN files Czechia under Eastern Europe. Czechs reply that Prague lies west of Vienna and that the label is political. Who is right depends on the map.
5 min
Explainer
Czech Constitutional Court and EU law: from sugar quotas to pensions
Brno's judges cleared the Lisbon Treaty and, once, told the Court of Justice it had gone too far. A careful, sometimes prickly relationship.
6 min
Explainer
Czech diplomatic service and consular help: who does what, and where
Lose a passport in Lisbon and a Czech consul can issue an emergency document. Lose one in Prague and the help comes from a different building.
6 min
Explainer
Czech-Slovak relations after 1993: the divorce that stayed friendly
A shared currency lasted weeks, a customs union eleven years. Three decades on, Czechs still watch Slovak television without subtitles.
5 min
Explainer
Czechia and Austria: from one empire to a quarrel over a nuclear plant
Vienna was once the capital of the Czech lands. Today the two countries share a border, two national parks and an old argument about Temelín.
5 min
Explainer
Czechia and Germany: the closest trade partner and the heaviest history
Czech cars have a German parent, an embassy garden once held thousands of East Germans, and a 1997 declaration tried to close the war-era chapter.
5 min
Explainer
Czechia and Poland: neighbours who met on a mountain to resist communism
A divided town, a lignite mine that reached the EU's top court, and dissidents hiking to the summit of Sněžka in the 1970s: the Czech-Polish border has stories.
5 min
Explainer
Czechia and Taiwan: no embassies, plenty of contact
No embassies, but a thriving exchange: how Czechia balances a one-China policy with trade, factories and Senate visits to Taipei.
5 min
Explainer
Czechia and the EU single market: four freedoms and what they change daily
No customs queue, no roaming bill, a 14-day right to return an online order. Behind these small things sits a single market that Czechia entered on 1 May 2004.
5 min
Explainer
Czechia and Ukraine: refugees, ammunition and a long connection
Ukrainians were already Czechia's largest foreign community before 2022. Since the invasion the country has taken in refugees and helped supply shells.
5 min
FAQ
EHIC in Czechia: what the card covers and where it stops
The EHIC gets EU visitors treated on the same terms as Czechs, but not at a private clinic or in an air ambulance. Where the card stops, in plain terms.
5 min
FAQ
ETIAS and Czechia: what visa-free travellers should know
ETIAS is expected to become a pre-travel check for visa-free visitors, not a visa. What it is, who is exempt and how to spot look-alike sites.
6 min
Explainer
EU citizens' rights in Czechia: what you can do, and what you must report
Move to Prague with a passport and nothing else, and for three months you need no permit. After that, the rules ask a few quiet questions.
6 min
Explainer
EU law supremacy and national courts: who has the last word?
A 1964 ruling over a nationalised electricity company set a principle that national constitutional courts have accepted only with conditions.
6 min
Explainer
EU regulations versus directives: why GDPR applies everywhere at once
One EU law applies on the day it is published. Another needs a Czech act first. The difference decides who you sue, and when.
5 min
Explainer
Euro adoption criteria: the five tests and the one that tripped Lithuania
In 2006 Lithuania missed euro entry on inflation by a sliver. The Maastricht tests are strict, and a country can fail one by a fraction of a point.
5 min
Explainer
Eurozone and Czechia: an obligation without a date, and why
Czechia signed up to the euro in 2003 and has never set a date. The koruna's defenders and its critics are arguing about the same few facts.
5 min
Guide
Flights between London and Prague: carriers, airports and fares
Several London airports serve Prague, and the cheapest fare is rarely the cheapest trip. Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton compared once extras are in.
5 min
Explainer
How a six-month EU presidency works, seen through Prague's two turns
Czechia chaired the Council in 2009 and 2022, the second time hosting a continent-wide summit in Prague. What a presidency can do, and what it cannot.
5 min
Explainer
In the EU but not the euro: what Czech membership means every day
Czechia joined on 1 May 2004, yet pays in koruna and sits outside the euro area. How EU law, rights and money reach a Prague resident.
5 min
Guide
London to Prague without flying: the rail and coach options
No train runs from London to Prague, but Eurostar plus German and Czech connections make it work. Where the changes fall and how long to allow.
6 min
Explainer
Money for results: how the EU Recovery Fund works in Czechia
The Facility pays when a country proves it has delivered, not when it spends. With the August 2026 deadline passed, here is how the plan works.
5 min