Thursday News Briefing

NEWS

RESIGNED Culture Minister Jiří Besser resigned today in the wake of questions raised about his ties to a businessman convicted of bribery, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported. Besser held a stake in Comoros Group, a firm through which he bought an apartment in Florida. He did not disclose his part ownership of the company in a property report required of all Cabinet members. Comoros Group is led by Pavel Hrach, who has been previously convicted of bribery. Besser had initially said he would only resign his post if someone could prove he did something corrupt, but then submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Petr Nečas, citing a lack of support from his political colleagues. Besser is a part of the Mayors and Independents movement, which operates as a wing of TOP 09.

RUSSIA On the same day that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Prague (Dec. 8), Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09) criticized the past weekend's parliamentary elections in Russia, calling the police crackdown on resulting demonstrations in Moscow excessive in an interview with the daily Mladá fronta Dnes. "It is unfortunate since we hoped that the times when power was used to influence elections are over," Schwarzenberg said. "It would have been so much the better piece of news if powerful men in Moscow had reacted [to the elections] in a calmer manner."

CROATIA The government has unanimously agreed to start talks on the treaty that would see Croatia become the European Union's 28th member. A parliamentary vote will ratify the treaty, and all EU members look poised to accede to the Croatian treaty before an expected July 1, 2013, deadline. In the Czech Republic, the treaty vote was originally linked to an opt-out from a human rights provision that President Václav Klaus had demanded in exchange for his signature on the Lisbon Treaty. Legal analyses as well as a majority held by the opposition Social Democrats in the Senate have since seen the government pledge to separate the two votes.

BUSINESS

LAYOFFS Around 1,000 staff gathered Dec. 7 at the main gate of steel company Arcelor Mittal Ostrava in Ostrava as part of a demonstration organized by unions against the planned layoff of 10 percent of current staff or up to 600 people.  Employees protested against the company's strategy that, according to unions, pursues short-term profit at the expense of the future development of the company and the number of jobs. The demonstration lasted half an hour.

EUROZONE The Czech Republic will support the treaty changes at the upcoming EU summit if they concern only eurozone members and do not lead to fragmentation of the EU, Prime Minister Petr Nečas' spokesperson told ČTK Dec. 7. Changes in treaties and bigger centralization of member states' budgets are being sought mainly by Germany and France owing to the current sovereign debt crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy want to push through a toughening of the fiscal discipline in the EU or at least in the eurozone.

MINIMUM WAGE The Cabinet has rejected a proposal from the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry to increase the minimum wage from 8,000 Kč per month to 8,500 Kč per month, the daily Právo reported. Ministers said it is not wise to raise the minimum wage when it is not clear how the economy will progress in the coming months. Wage growth in both the public and private sectors is expected to grow at around 2.4 percent and 2.8 percent next year, respectively.

WEATHER

Prague, Czech Republic; Partly Sunny; High: 7 C, Low: 3 C

News Desk can be reached at
news@praguepost.com