Breakfast Brief – 16 October 2009

NEWS
Poll: 65% back Klaus in anti-Lisbon fight
A new poll of 500 respondents for Lidové noviny shows that 65% of Czechs support President Václav Klaus in his opposition to the Lisbon Treaty. The same percentage fear the Beneš decrees could be breached if no extra legal guarantees are added to the treaty. The poll’s director pronounced the results surprising.
Source: LN 1, 2

Heavy snow strands thousands
The first major snowfall of the winter swept across the Czech Republic yesterday, stopping traffic and cutting off power to some 70,000 households. It has not snowed this much this early in the country in more than 30 years according to records. Temperatures across the country peaked at under 4C yesterday. Warmer weather should return next week.
Source: most Czech press

Senators expand Lisbon complaint
A group of right-wing senators who filed a complaint against the Lisbon Treaty with the Czech Constitutional Court in late September yesterday extended their claim by 12 more pages reportedly on issues under the Treaties of Rome. Czech cabinet yesterday met with President Václav Klaus to discuss the exact wording of his demand for extra legal guarantees under the Lisbon Treaty.
Source: ČTK, E15 3, LN 1, 2

Havel blasts Klaus over Lisbon
Former President Václav Havel yesterday criticised Václav Klaus over his position on the Lisbon Treaty, saying that Klaus’s attitude is “irresponsible, dangerous and harmful to the country”. Havel still believes the treaty will be ratified by the end of the year.
Source: most Czech press

Fischer: Lisbon Treaty OK with constitution
The cabinet considers the Lisbon Treaty compatible with the Czech constitution, PM Jan Fischer said yesterday, adding there were no grounds for certain parts of the recent senatorial request for a review of the treaty. The PM believes the court should not be reviewing existing EU-founding agreements or the so-called Irish guarantees under the new treaty.
Source: ČTK, Právo 3

MfD: Plzeň uni retracts degree, mafia hooked in
The new management of Plzeň university’s law faculty will strip a former student Jan Harangozz of a degree that he allegedly received without actual study. The public prosecutor’s office confirmed yesterday that the corruption at the law faculty is linked to the Berka mafia case. Prosecutor Daniela Smetanová said that the law faculty might have helped the mafia to cement influential state contacts.
Source: MfD A1, A4

HN: State budget expenses questionable
A report by Hospodářské noviny on the 2010 state budget claims hundreds of millions crowns will go to controversial projects, such as the CZK 25 million reconstruction of Jan Žižka’s statue in Prague-Vítkov and the CZK 87 million revamping of state offices.
Source: HN 1-3

Winter tyres back on D1
Amending its own recent decision, the Transport Ministry has issued new rules making winter tyres mandatory between kilometres 66 and 162 of the D1 motorway for all vehicles starting 1 November. The deputy regional governor for the Vysočina region Libor Joukl said that the earlier decision was poorly defined. The ministry will now draw up an amendment requiring the tyres to be used by all vehicles across the country next year, he said.
Source: ihned.cz, Právo 2, LN 3

Christian Dems launch anti-gambling bill
In a move to curb national gambling, the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) yesterday submitted a proposal to amend gaming laws to parliament. The party is demanding a ban on gambling online and via mobile phone as well as the re-definition of video gaming terminals, party chair Cyril Svoboda said yesterday.
Source: ČTK

Prague skyscrapers flout UNESCO rules
New Prague City Council zoning plans released yesterday include one 75-metre and another 104-metre high building in Pankrác in breach of the 70-metre UNESCO limit. Head of the Czech committee of UNESCO International Council of Monuments and Sites Josef Štulc said that if such disregard for UNESCO rules continues, Prague might drop out of the World Heritage List.
Source: HN 6

BUSINESS
CVC buys Staropramen in e.European sweep
The world’s biggest beer maker Anheuser-Busch InBev will sell its eastern European operations to investment company CVC Capital Partners for USD 2.23 billion (CZK 38.6 billion), Anheuser-Busch InBev said yesterday. CVC will therefore acquire Czech brewery Pivovary Staropramen and operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. The company has its eye also on Budvar in České Budějovice, CVC’s head of CEE, István Szőke, said.
Source: most Czech press

ČSA pilots agree to wage cut
The pilots’ association of Czech Airlines (ČSA) voted yesterday to accept a 40% pay cut, subject to several conditions, which have not been made fully public. Once those conditions are met, the actual wage reduction is expected to be only 15%. The pilots demand that ČSA remain in state hands and the current management be replaced, Hospodářské noviny reports.
Source: most Czech press

Kommersant: Czechs not meeting Russian gas quota
The Russian daily Kommersant claims the Czech Republic is not meeting its obligations to off-take Russian gas since the country only used 2.7 billion cubic metres of Russian gas by the end of July; RWE Transgas was obliged to draw 8.5 billion cubic metres from Russian Gazprom for all of 2009, the paper says. It concludes that Czechs may have to pay in advance for the gas supplies.
Source: ČTK

Biden to discuss US role in Temelín
Industry and Trade Minister Vladimír Tošovský told the daily Mf Dnes yesterday that US company Westinghouse wants to take part in ČEZ’s tender for the construction of two nuclear power units in Temelín. The daily reports the topic will be on the US Vice President Joe Biden’s agenda during his visit to the Czech Republic next week.
Source: MfD A4

T-Mobile gets state nod on ČRa
The anti-monopoly office (ÚOHS) will permit mobile operator T-Mobile to buy České Radiokomunikace’s retail telecommunication services unit, ÚOHS spokesman Kristián Chalupa said. The acquisition brings T-Mobile more than 100,000 users of voice and internet services, moving it closer to biggest rival Telefónica O2, which is now the country’s sole operator of both fixed and mobile telecommunication networks.
Source: ČTK

Trade union demands shorter work week
ČMOKS, the country’s largest trade union organisation, has backed demands from employers for state subsidies to finance a four-day work week. The unions calculate the state would profit from the new work model which would reduce unemployment payments; otherwise national jobless figures will rise to 12% next year, they predict. The shorter work week would help struggling companies to curb mass lay-offs, supporters claim.
Source: most Czech press