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Business NewsEthics and MPs; a look at Conflicts of Interest on the state and local level
The speaker of the lower house of parliament, a Social Democrat, has been
assigned the task of drawing up a recommended "Code of Ethics"
for MPs. The goal is to put an end to vote "buying" and to
establish rules for dealing with lobbyists and business interests. The
move came immediately after an MP in the Social Democrat-led government
coalition, in an off-the-record interview that was nonetheless published,
accused the main opposition Civic Democrats of offering him a
10-million-crown bribe to vote against the government in a confidence
vote. Police investigations are underway in that case; meanwhile, the
newly appointed Minister of Justice, Pavel Nemec, has withdrawn from
consideration a new draft Law on Conflicts of Interest, without public
explanation.
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Current AffairsSpidla proposes "pan-European fire brigade" to deal with terrorist attack
European Union leaders are gathering in Brussels for a summit dominated by
three main issues: turning the EU into the world's most competitive
economy, restarting the stalled talks on a European Constitution, and the
fight against terrorism. Leaders of the 10 countries which join the EU on
May 1st - the Czech Republic among them - are also attending the talks.
Radio Prague's Alexis Rosenzweig is in Brussels; we spoke to him earlier.
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Current AffairsDeputy foreign minister: small EU countries not "ganging up" on big ones
Prime Ministers of the Visegrad Four - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic
and Slovakia - met at Dobris Chateau outside Prague on Wednesday, ahead of
the inter-governmental conference (or IGC) on the future of Europe. The
Visegrad Four are part of a much larger group of countries unhappy with
the terms of the draft EU constitution to be discussed at the IGC, which
gets underway in Rome on Saturday. The Visegrad Four agreed on a number of
key demands they want to table in Rome, chief among them being the
"one country, one commissioner" principle. Rob Cameron spoke to
Jan Kohout, deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs.
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Current AffairsVisegrad PMs meet in Czech Republic ahead of crucial IGC meeting in Rome
Prime Ministers of the so-called "Visegrad Four" are meeting at a
chateau outside Prague on Wednesday, for talks ahead of the
inter-governmental conference (IGC) on the draft EU constitution. The V4
meeting, bringing together the premiers of Poland, Hungary, the Czech
Republic and Slovakia, is an attempt to co-ordinate the positions of the
four Visegrad countries before the IGC gets underway in Rome. Rob Cameron
reports.
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