INVESTIGATED

The Energy Regulatory Office and the Anti-Monopoly Office have launched an investigation into RWE Transgas, the Czech Republic’s dominant natural gas provider. Three gas companies — JČP, Pražská plynárenská and Vemex — have complained that RWE is allocating them too little space in its underground storage facilities. RWE was fined a record 240 million Kč ($11.6 million) last year for overpricing its supplies.

The Czech Republic draws more tourists than any of the EU’s other 12 new member states, according to data released by Eurostat. The Czech Republic was the 11th most popular destination in the EU, trailing Ireland and Portugal and passing Denmark and Sweden. Germans, Britons and Italians totaled almost half of the tourists here.

Ake Svensson, CEO of Saab, admitted that his company paid billions of crowns in commission to the agents who secured its controversial contract supplying 14 Gripen fighter jets to the Czech Republic. However, during his May 2 appearance on Swedish television, he maintained that Saab has no idea how these commissions were used.

The Chamber of Deputies has approved an amendment advancing the deadline for fuel producers to begin using biodiesel. The deadline, originally slated for January but now set for September, mandates that all Czech diesel must be made of at least 2 percent biodiesel. The Jan. 1 deadline for adding ethanol to petrol will remain unchanged.

Russia’s state-owned energy utility, RAO UES, has signed a memorandum of understanding with ČEZ, agreeing to cooperate on reforming the Russian power sector. This is the first such agreement RAO has made with a foreign investor. The companies’ initial project will be a 400-megawatt combined-cycle generating unit at the Shchekinskaya thermal power plant.

Retail giant Tesco has announced that it will open its first two Czech low-energy stores this year. The energy consumption of the stores — in Žatec, north Bohemia, and Říčany, near Prague — will be at least one-third lower than the chain’s traditional shops. The move is part of the company’s pledge to cut its worldwide electricity use in half by 2020.

The government has not done enough to inform the general public about its proposed public finance reforms, according to a recent Median poll published May 7 in Mladá fronta Dnes. Only 20 percent of those polled support the reforms, while 38 percent oppose them; 42 percent of respondents say they lack sufficient information.

The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent in the first quarter, the lowest rate in eight years, the Czech Statistical Office announced May 4. Over the past year, the number of unemployed workers in the country has dropped 102,900, to 311,200.