Archive: Domestic affairs | Citizen Citizen
Transport minister faces ultimatum over registration system
Continuing problems with the country’s new vehicle registration system,
which crashed for the umpteenth time on Wednesday, could see Transport
Minister Pavel Dobeš resign by the end of the week. The prime minister
warned Mr Dobeš that unless the faulty system was running without
complications by Friday, he expected the minister to go. More
Government unveils draft of new Civil Code, ten years in the making
On Monday the government presented what it hopes is the final draft of
crucial legislation that has been in progress for a decade – the Czech
Republic’s new Civil Code, the collection of laws that govern all aspects
of private law. The aim has been to update the original, which comes from
1964, and to unify the many laws that have since then become parts of other
legal codices like the Labour Code, acts on families and marriage,
residential ownership, economic relations and more. More
Culture minister stokes controversy with lifelong marriage proposal
The Christian Democrat Culture Minister Václav Jehlička has stoked
controversy by suggesting an amendment to the countries marriage code that
would allow for what appear to be binding religious marriages with no
option of divorce.
More
Czech government considers uprooting from centre of capital
The Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek recently announced a new
initiative to save the government money. The plan revolves around
relocating the numerous ministries located in the centre of Prague to less
expensive areas of the city. A pilot project is already underway, which
could see the Ministry of Trade and Industry uprooted from the historic
city centre.
More
New bill to make dual nationality possible for former Czech citizens
The Interior Ministry has come up with a new bill on citizenship which will
make it easier for former Czech nationals to have their Czech citizenship
returned. If it goes through, former Czech citizens who were stripped of
their citizenship by the communist authorities will be able to have double
nationality.
More
The verdict on Czech civil servants: good work, poor attitude
Excessive red-tape and arrogant civil servants have long been a problem in
the Czech Republic. A recent study conducted by the Prague-based
Westminster Agency indicated that little has changed in this respect in the
last 18 years. The agency says that it is not the performance of civil
servants that's at the core of the problem - it is their attitude and the
fact that little has been done to change it.
More
Czech Republic on high-alert: intelligence points to possible terrorism threat
Czechs woke up on Saturday morning to the news of a possible terrorist
threat against this country. The reports came on the heels of the arrest
of four people in Norway last Friday, where police uncovered a plot that
was to blow up synagogues, as well as the American and Israeli embassies
in Oslo. Within hours the Czech government held a cabinet meeting and
decided to implement massive security precautions that took effect in the
early hours of Saturday. The Czech capital remains on high-alert.
More
Anti-terrorism centre one of possible solutions towards preventing potential attacks
Five years after 9/11 and roughly a month after British intelligence
thwarted an alleged plot by terrorists to blow up US airliners over the
Atlantic, the Czech Republic is still undecided over how to further
improve and streamline its own communication and data sharing between the
police and intelligence services. Shortly before leaving office, former
Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan advocated founding a special centre
that would improve the chances of preventing potential attacks on European
soil, by working more closely with BIS counter-intelligence, the Office for
Foreign Relations and Information, and military intelligence.
More
Proposed anti-terrorism centre raises issue of ineffective legislation
Earlier this week, Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan introduced plans for
the Czech Republic to establish an anti-terrorism centre. Police and
intelligence services have been advocating such a move for months, saying
that there needs to be a centralized unit in this country working to fight
terrorism. Such a centre would be charged with collecting and sorting
information about terrorism-related issues, and communicating with
partners abroad to ensure an effective exchange of information. Yet the
idea hasn't been received with much enthusiasm from leading politicians.
Jana Hybaskova, a Czech MEP, explains how she views the possibility of
establishing an anti-terrorism centre in the Czech Republic, and what
steps the country needs to take to fight terrorism effectively:
More
Straka withdraws from election race after row over citizenship
The Czech Republic lost one of the more colourful candidates for the
forthcoming parliamentary elections this week, after the Christian
Democrats announced that former football manager Frantisek Straka would
not be standing for the party in June. Mr Straka, former player and
manager at the country's biggest club Sparta Prague, has been withdrawn
from the list of candidates after alleged problems over his citizenship.
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