Czech News Daily

From today, energy company ČEZ will start giving customers Kč 1000 towards the purchase of new energy saving appliances. Customers of ČEZ will be eligible for the money for the purchase of new fridges, freezers and washing machines. The promotion will run until 15th June, or sooner depending on how soon the fund runs out.

ČEZ customers will be eligible for the discount only when buying in branches of the Datart and Euronics electronics stores, and must either trade in an old appliance of the same type or provide certification that it has been ecologically scrapped.

Energy company E.ON ran a similar promotion in 2007. Anyone buying energy saving washing machines, dishwashers, or Whirlpool combination freezers could save between 17% and 28% on presentation of an invoice from E.ON.

Public awareness over scrapping schemes is an increasingly important item on today’s political agenda in the  Czech Republic. Following the example of car manufacturers, domestic furniture manufacturers have also requested a similar scheme. They’re looking for state funded incentives of up to Kč 15 000 for individuals to trade in old furniture for new. Furniture manufacturers were, according to Tomáš Lukeš from the Association of Czech Furniture Makers , inspired by ČSSD plans for dealing with the economic crisis. The measures include government hand-outs of over Kč 30 000 towards the purchase of a new cars for owners deciding to scrap their old car.

Doctor Stanislav Kusý received tens of millions from the Ministry of Health as development aid for Zambia in spite of the fact that Ministry inspectors strongly advised against it.

Decisions over the portioning of the funds were shared with close friend of Stanislav Kusý, then Deputy Minister of Health Vladimír Dryml. Today Dryml is a Senator. And doctor Kusý works as his assistant.

The development aid began to flow in the year 2000. Kusý’s company Czech Aid was supposed to build a health centre in Zambia. After three years however it turned out that the money had ended up in other companies owned by Kusý and the Ministry of Health stopped financing the project.

At the end of 2005 however Vladimír Dryml started working for the Ministry as an assistant. He himself now confesses that it was as a result of his intervention that the money for his friend Kusý’s  African project started to flow again. Yet the leadership of the Ministry of Health at the time didn’t seem to notice a problem. Head of the department was then David Rath, who today distances himself from the project.

‘I told him: David, you’re not allowed to do that because it’s a violation of your political mandate. And that is money with which the Ministry should have nothing to do with,’ says Dryml.

And so financing of Stanislav Kusý’s state enterprise continued until 2006 when it was finally cut off by Ministry administrator Julínka. ‘We were more inclined to act, as doubts about the project had already come to light in 2003. The restrictions were made out on the basis that something wasn’t right, and that the budgetary guidelines had been broken. And maybe even the law,’ said Deputy Minister of Health Marek Šnajdr.

MF Dnes has obtained a complete audit of all of doctor Kusý’s ministry projects. The audit shows that there isn’t even a single year where everything was in order. ‘The financial grants that were provided weren’t used for the purposes which the submitted documents presented as the aims of the project. The internal audit shows the whole operations to be an inappropriate, ineffective and uneconomic drain on government resources,’ states the audit in it’s closing statement.

‘We’ve never seen this report, never read it, and none of us are familiar with it. It’s absurd how confused this situation has become,’ reacted Libor Šlauf , legal advocate for Stanislav Kusý to the report. Stanislav Kusý himself refused to comment. The state-funded Health Clinic is currently up for sale. The money will therefore end up in the Zambian publicly listed company Czech Aid Ltd in which Kusý is involved. Kusý’s lawyer didn’t want to disclose information about who the actual owner of this company is. Apparently he doesn’t know.

The state will start contributing billions of crowns this year  for the insulation of homes and apartment buildings and to ecological heating.

Green Savings, the biggest ecologic program for households in the Czech Republic will be introduced today by Environment Minister Martin Bursík and it now seems certain that the State Environment Fund will spend billions on it.

An investigation by company Factum Invenio carried out before the programme was announced indicates that tens of thousands of households could have interest in the fund. Families want to save on heating and therefore plan on insulating their homes or at least replacing windows. For many of them however such improvements are too expensive.

The state fund should decrease the cost of insulation by hundreds of thousands of crowns. In this year alone 10 billion crowns should go to households from the Green Savings fund and a further 15 billion over the next 3 years.

Up to 220 000 per house

Factum Invenio in February this year surveyed 1162 owners of family houses and 251 owners or managers of apartment buildings.

‘Over the next 4 years 42% of house owners are planning energy saving improvements. In the case of apartment buildings that figure is a further 3% higher,’ stated Factum Invenio in the summary of their report.

For 63% of house owners and 55% of apartment building owners the greatest barrier to insulating the whole building, or at least replacing windows and doors, is the high cost involved.

The Green Savings program is counting on the state to pay households up to half of the cost of insulating a family home to a maximum of 220 thousand crowns.

‘We’ve calculated the usual amount of assistance to be around 35%,’ said Petr Štěpánek, director of the state fund for the environment.

When Factum Invenio asked owners of houses and apartment buildings what state ecology grants should be available for, most of those questioned supported insulation.

Amongst owners of family houses 67% answered that the fund should support insulation whilst amongst owners of apartment buildings the figure was a further 9% higher.

‘In second place was the use of grants for replacement of windows or doors,’ stated the agency. ‘A fifth of owners of family houses would welcome grants for solar panels.’

The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has posted another video on YouTube which likens the fall of Mirek Topolánek’s government to the most tragic events in the history of the Czech Republic - the Munich Accord, February 1948  and the Soviet occupation in 1968.

The ODS Video begins with famous scenes from 1938,  the forced evacuation of the Sudetenland, February 1948, the forced collectivisation of agriculture under communism and tanks rolling into Prague.

‘The Czech state has been betrayed and overthrown many times due to the unfulfilled ambitions of a particular few. The vote of no-confidence is such an act of betrayal, at the time when the Czech nation stands at the head of Europe’ , says the narrator, accompanied by emotive music.

Actor and Senator Tomáš Töpfer (ODS) talks about how many Czech’s have such a short memory of history in which such a small county has failed to be taken seriously and betrayed. ’Czech’s have to remember that our biggest danger is that of being all alone’, he finishes.

Source Article: Lidové Noviny

What actually happens after a vote of no-confidence against the government? What does the Czech Constitution say?

Resignation of the government: In the case of parliament declaring a no-confidence vote the government must resign. The resignation notice must be handed to the President of the Republic. The government will remain in office however until a new cabinet is named.

Naming of a new government: The President of the Republic must first name the new Prime Minister and then other cabinet members according to the Prime Minister’s recommendation (The President isn’t bound to any time period by which this should be completed).

The new government must present itself before Parliament no later than 30 days after the naming of the Prime Minister and his cabinet in order to request a vote of confidence.

If the government doesn’t obtain a vote of confidence from Parliament then the President must name a new government and the process begins again.

Early Elections: The Czech Republic has to date not found itself in a situation where a political crisis has led to the calling of early elections. Václav Klaus’s (ODS) coalition government resigned in November 1997 in anticipation of elections which took place in June 1998 and his leadership was substituted for the remainder of the term by an independent candidate.

To hold early elections parliament must agree to shorten the constitutional voting term of the lower chamber (currently 4 years). Early elections must be supported by a 60% majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.