Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek plans to submit a new national policy for euro adoption to the Cabinet next month, he told the daily Lidové noviny Feb. 3. The previous government was forced to delay its planned 2010 adoption when it realized the public finance debt was too high to meet European Union criteria. Kalousek said Czechs could adopt the euro as early as 2012.

M.L. Moran has sold its controlling stake in food company Setuza and its 100 percent stake in Český olej to Germany’s Campaspol, company Deputy Chairman Zdeněk Šmejkal said Feb. 5. Czech courts have ruled that Setuza owes nearly 4 billion Kč to the state. Setuza offered the government 850 million Kč to settle the dispute, but Agriculture Minister Petr Gandalovič rejected the offer last week.

Austrian firm Kapsch submitted a proposal Feb. 2 to use a microwave satellite system for the second phase of the Czech electronic toll system. The company, which won the controversial tender to build the first phase of the project, worked on the proposal with experts from the Czech Technical University in Prague and expects to launch the second phase of the e-toll system by early 2008.

Prima TV won the rights to broadcast the 2008 Euro soccer tournament, the European soccer governing body, UEFA, announced on its Web site. The station will become the first Czech commercial channel to air a major international sporting event. All other international events had been broadcast by the public Czech Television. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

SURPLUS

The foreign trade surplus reached its highest level on record in 2006, hitting 47.3 billion Kč, the Czech Statistical Office announced Feb. 5. The surplus was buoyed by a record year for car exports. Exports grew by 14.6 percent year-on-year to 2.1 trillion Kč. Exporters had had to cope with a firming crown and growing fuel and gas prices.

National air carrier Czech Airlines (ČSA) was Europe’s second most punctual airline in 2006, behind Romania’s Tarom, the daily Hospodářské noviny reported Feb. 6. Nearly 85 percent of ČSA flights left on time, compared to a European average of 78 percent. The airline ranked 20th in 2003.

The Czech financial arbiter imposed a lower amount of fines last year than he had in the previous three years. Otakar Schlossberger said Feb. 6 that he fined financial institutions less than 237,000 Kč in 2006 because of a drop in customer complaints about the way they did business. Schlossberger handled 77 cases last year, fewer than half the cases he handled in 2005.