iRozhlas: PM and ministries at odds over EU presidency hires

Efforts to keep spending down could mean that the Czech Republic does not have enough officials to handle the country’s presidency of the European Union in 2022, the Czech Radio news site iRozhlas.cz reported. Individual ministries originally said they needed 600 new staff but the government says it will not provide funding for any more than 200.

iRozhlas said neither the Ministry of Finance nor the government possessed methodology or an analysis with regard to how to calculate the number of hires necessary.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said in July that the proposed intake of staff should be adequate to handle the EU presidency. He said the government’s top priority was state budget austerity.

Author: Ian Willoughby