France’s EDF, South Korea’s KHNP, and U.S.-Canadian group Westinghouse Electric have made initial bids to build a new unit at the Czech Republic’s Dukovany nuclear power plant, Czech utility CEZ said on Wednesday.
The Czech Republic has been a strong backer of nuclear energy as a carbon-free power source for the future, unlike European Union neighbours Germany and Austria.
Majority of state-owned CEZ, which launched the Dukovany expansion tender in March, said final bids would come in by the end of September 2023.
“We expect the contracts to be finalized in 2024,” board member Tomas Pleskac said in a statement.
The 1,200 megawatt-unit should be completed in 2036 and help the country replace current Soviet-designed units at Dukovany that will eventually be decommissioned.
CEZ plans to build three more nuclear units – on top of the one now planned – at its Dukovany and Temelin nuclear sites, as the country diversifies away from coal. It is also planning to build smaller modular nuclear power plants.
Nuclear made up 36% of Czech electricity output in 2021.
Candidates from China and Russia were excluded on security grounds, in contrast to Hungary which has chosen Russia’s Rosatom for its nuclear project.
Poland picked Westinghouse last month to build its first nuclear power plant, and also agreed to cooperate with South Korea on potential further units.
The Czech government has been considering restructuring the 70% state-owned CEZ, the biggest listed firm in Prague with market capitalisation of $18.4 billion, in the coming years, which could lead to the state fully taking over the nuclear projects.
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Czechia had the lowest rate of unemployment in the European Union in October, the Czech News Agency reported on Thursday citing Eurostat data. Data from the Czech Statistics Office indicates that unemployment in Czechia lay at 2.1 percent, compared to 2.2 percent in September.
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The Czech tradition of timber rafting, recognized as part of Czech traditional folk culture, has been added to UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list. The craft, dating back to the 14th century, involves the transport of wood by waterways from areas rich in woodland to those in which it is scarcer.
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The Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill that will enable Ukrainian soldiers to be trained in Czechia as well as for Czech soldiers to train Ukrainians in other EU member states. The training of Ukrainian troops will take place in the Libavá military zone in Central Moravia.
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Czechs have fewer books at home than a year ago, but they still read just as often as before, an average of two to three books a month, according to a survey conducted by the Knihobot secondhand bookstore. The survey involved more than 1,800 respondents from all over the Czech Republic.
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While one in ten Czechs borrowed money for Christmas shopping last year, only three percent of people surveyed by the Czech Banking Association (CBA) and Ipsos are considering a loan this year. Most often, they want to borrow up to CZK 10,000.
Unemployment in the eurozone has dropped to a record low, at 6.5 percent in October, the EU’s Eurostat statistics office said Thursday.
The reading — the lowest since Eurostat started compiling jobless figures in April 1998 — was an indicator that the economies of the 19 EU nations using the euro had bounced back after the Covid pandemic.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was markedly less than the 7.3 percent recorded a year ago.
Data from the Czech Statistics Office indicates that unemployment in Czechia lay at 2.1 percent, compared to 2.2 percent in September.
The country has had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU for several years now.
Eurostat estimated that, for the entire 27-nation European Union, 12.95 million adults were unemployed in October — or 6.0 percent of the active population — with 10.87 million of them in the eurozone.
While all OECD economies, with the exception of former EU member Britain, have recovered to their pre-pandemic size, global headwinds are stalling the recovery.
The eurozone is likely to tip towards recession within weeks, according to the European Commission.
Inflation is running hot, despite falling back in the latest reading on Wednesday, at 10 percent — above the European Central Bank’s two-percent target — largely because of high energy prices spurred by the fallout of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Business activity has been declining for five straight months, according to a PMI survey published by S&P Global, although the rate of decline slowed in November.
The ECB will pore over the latest indicators as it walks a tight rope between raising interest rates to combat inflation and the risk of tipping the economy into a deep recession.
An analysis note from ING bank said the unemployment data showed “the labour market remains resilient despite the slowing economy”.
It added that it expected the ECB to remain “on high alert in its fight against inflation”.
Younger people had the highest unemployment rate in the EU and its eurozone, at 15.1 percent and 15.0 percent respectively, according to Eurostat. That was an increase over a year ago.
In the eurozone’s biggest economy, Germany, the unemployment rate was 3.0 percent, down from 3.3 percent in October 2021.
In the second biggest, France, it was 7.1 percent, down from 7.6 percent a year earlier.
While we can’t wait for Christmas, what about doing something nice for someone else?
On December 7th, you can take part in a charity event at Roxy. The aim is to give Christmas gifts to children from orphanages.
The concert My Kind of Santa is organized in cooperation with the Organization for Refugee Aid (OPU), featuring Czech rapper Rest and Martin Matys, We Are Domi and The Silver Spoons.
Since his first singles as Balkonovka, Rest has established a unique position among the leading Czech rappers during his ten years on the scene.
He will be accompanied on the stag by his label mate Ty Nikdy Martin Matys. The line-up of the evening will also be completed by the Czech-Norwegian group We Are Domi led by Dominika Hašková, who represented the Czech Republic at Eurovision this year, and the indie-rock band The Silver Spoons. After a series of successful singles this year, the band has released their anticipated debut Come and Get It.
How does it work?
Entrance to the concert is free, but visitors are required to bring a toy, which will then be given to the Kralupy nad Vltavou orphanage and to refugee children in the Czech Republic.
Here you can book your ticket for zero crowns and choose whether you want to bring a toy for a girl or a boy and in what age category.
The toy should not be wrapped in gift paper so that it can be given to whoever will be most pleased.
The recommended minimum price for a gift is 300 crowns, but there are no limits to imagination or budget.
Rohlik Group has promoted experienced eCommerce manager and Rohlik CZ CEO Olin Novák to the role of International CEO, with this now being his fourth position within the company.
Olin Novák will now oversee the day-to-day running of the individual countries of the entire group.
Founder and Rohlik Group CEO Tomáš Čupr will now focus more closely on the development of the group as a whole, including increasing efficiencies, along with specific group-wide projects. Rohlik.cz will be newly led by Martin Beháň as of today.
As a first step towards making all markets more efficient, Tomáš Čupr centralised operations from all countries where Rohlik Group operates: “We have arrived at a management structure that allows me to focus on much more strategic and valuable issues for the entire Group. We are already one of the most innovative e-commerce companies in Europe, but all who know me know that I already have another milestone in mind.” On Olin Novak’s promotion, he adds: “Olin and I share the same vision of what food retailing of the future should look like, and over the past four years he has proven that he is a true leader made of the same Rohlik dough.”
Olin took over the leadership of Rohlik in the Czech Republic in September 2021, after less than 4 years of leading both the Czech and later international commercial teams at Rohlik Group.
Summarising his career to date, Olin points out: “I chose Rohlik four years ago for its unique approach to improving customer service. I have now accepted the position of International CEO to help transfer our Czech know-how to all markets, facilitate transfer of best practice between countries and to further improve customer service. I look forward to using my knowledge and experience to help Rohlik Group conquer the European e-grocery market.” As concerns his successor Czech CEO: “I am glad that I can pass the baton in the Czech Republic to someone as experienced as Martin. We will continue to be in close contact and I believe that together we will take Rohlik’s services to the next level.”
Martin worked at Tesco, where he held various positions over the last 18 years, most recently as CEO for Poland. He has extensive retail experience and will therefore be a great asset to Rohlik.cz.
“I’ve been using the services of Rohlik for a long time, it’s a lovebrand for me and that’s why I’m excited about joining the team. It’s a great honour that Tomáš and Olin have
placed their trust in me.”
Rohlik Group management is now, in addition to Tomáš Čupr, comprised of Olin Novák as International CEO, Mathias Ottitsch as Chief Operating Officer, Ondřej Klamt as Chief Technology Officer, Marek Hübner as Chief Commercial Officer and Vineta Bajaj will join Rohlik Group as Chief Financial Officer in January, having previously worked at Ocado Group.
- The Czech energy company ČEZ has obtained three tenders for the construction of a new unit at the Dukovany nuclear power station, it said on Wednesday. As expected, offers have been made by the French company EDF, KHNP from South Korea and Westinghouse from North America
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A large digital clock highlighting impending climate disaster has been installed by a metronome on Prague’s Letná Plain. The eight-metre high numerals of the Climate Clock show how much time remains to avert irreversible change to the Earth’s climate.
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The Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill that will enable Ukrainian soldiers to be trained in Czechia as well as for Czech soldiers to train Ukrainians in other EU member states. The training of Ukrainian troops will take place in the Libavá military zone in Central Moravia.
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In January, Innogy will raise electricity prices for roughly one-tenth of its customers. This means that from the beginning of the year, this segment of the customer base will pay the government’s capped electricity prices, while the average household will pay about CZK 500 per month more than they do now.
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While one in ten Czechs borrowed money for Christmas shopping last year, only three percent of people surveyed by the Czech Banking Association (CBA) and Ipsos are considering a loan this year. Most often, they want to borrow up to CZK 10,000.
By Abigail Calandra – Anglo-American University
Gregor Hildebrandt’s exhibition “A Blink of an Eye and the Years are Behind Us” is the first of a series of solo artist installations at Kunsthalle Prague and the most extensive collection of his work to date.
The exhibition of more than 80 works is an archive of Hildebrandt’s personal memories, drawing inspiration from music, film, literature, and architecture to create minimalist and abstract impressionist works.
Located in Mala Strana, Kunsthalle is a new art space that seeks to highlight Prague’s multicultural past. The German word “kunsthalle” is representative of laboratories of critical thinking and open dialogue about art and society. Kunsthalle Prague opened its doors in February 2022 with the exhibition “Kinetismus: 100 Years of Electricity in Art” to celebrate the building’s original function as the Zenger Electrical Substation in the 1930s.
The Berlin-based artist’s work takes up two of three exhibition spaces, including his well-known works, some lesser-known pieces, and site-specific installations. Hildebrandt seeks to document his own life and art while also placing a special focus on the Berlin art and music scene. The exhibition will also serve as a venue for concerts and re-staged Berlin exhibitions, including a performance by the Munich electronic group ANNE on December 6.
Hildebrandt began using magnetic tapes from audio cassettes as a vessel for his art at the end of the nineties and branched out to other forms of recording media in the early 2000s, including VHS cassettes and gramophone records. Additionally, his new paintings on display are inspired by the music and melancholy of the British band The Cure.
Gallery One includes two site-specific installations both created from the tape of audio cassettes. The first is a massive, brown rectangular prism that extends across the room. The room is also adorned with an impressive curtain made from black and white magnetic tapes that stretches from floor to ceiling. Another monumental showpiece is an oversized chess piece, a floor installation made from chess boards, and a collection of pawns on shelves mounted to the walls.
Both Gallery One and Two feature artworks made from spliced vinyl records laid in intricate patterns. From a distance, the viewer can see the simplicity of Hildebrandt’s art but from up close, the detail emerges. Yet at any distance, his obvious love for music is what prevails.
Upstairs is a model of the Grzegorzki Shows where Hildebrandt has hosted smaller names in the Berlin art scene from the former gatehouse of his own studio since 2017. Guests at Kunsthalle can enter the showroom model, complete with its neon pink sign and green linoleum floors.
Another notable feature is the black sail, “das Segel” woven from magnetic tapes that fill nearly an entire room of the second gallery. In October 2017, Hildebrandt and a crew used it to sail from Cyprus to Tel Aviv. The tapes used once played music dedicated to travel, the ocean, and sailing.
The exhibition reveals Hildebrandt’s complex analog world, bringing the viewer into it with him. The contrast between silence and sound is integral to the atmosphere, contributing to themes of the mysterious passage of time and simple nostalgia. His use of cultural cues combined with lyrics and sound evokes both collective and personal memories from the audience.
Hildebrandt’s intimate exhibition engages the audience and the Berlin artistic community he is part of; it celebrates both the time that has passed and “the years behind us.”
The exhibition is on display until February 13, 2023. Kunsthalle is open Thursday-Monday from 11-19:00 and Wednesday from 11-20:00. More information can be found on the website.
Climate campaigners unveiled in Prague a huge countdown clock on Tuesday evening, showing how little time is left before global temperatures hit a critical high.
The electronic clock has been installed on Letna Hill, next to the famous metronome as part of the Freedom Festival.
The clock is 8 meters high and 35 meters wide. It will remain on the hill for just two weeks, until December 12.
The left side of the clock shows the number of years and days, while the right side shows the hours, minutes, and seconds remaining until “mankind passes the point of no return, when climate change will become irreversible and catastrophic for the planet.”
A report by the United Nations issued in 2018, said global warming was likely to reach 1.5°C over preindustrial levels between 2030 and 2052 if it continues at the current rate.
That level of warming is projected to increase damage to many ecosystems and cause an estimated $54 trillion in damage, the report said.
The digital installation shows six years and 235 days remaining before average global temperatures, at current emission rates, reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The organizers of the Freedom Festival in Prague have also launched a petition urging Czech politicians to be more active in tackling the climate issue.
“We want to remind citizens, including politicians, in a non-violent but nevertheless very powerful way that climate change is an acute threat to the future of the Czech Republic, where freedom, peace and democracy reign,” says Marek Cieslar, spokesperson for the Festival of Freedom.
Studio Multiverse is behind the project. “The clock has a minimal ecological burden and consumes about as much energy as one domestic stove,” the studio said.
Prague is the first European city east of Berlin to have installed a climate clock.
Countries in the 2015 Paris Agreement agreed on measures to limit emissions to stay below the critical temperature mark.
More than 500 people have signed a petition calling for electricity, water and heat supplies to be cut off to all Russian-owned buildings in Prague, including those used by Moscow’s diplomats, in response to Russia’s massive missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The signatures are being collected in an effort led by a Czech group called Arms for Ukraine.
“Over the past several weeks, Ukrainian towns and villages have been hit by unprecedented missile attacks unleashed by Russia,” the group behind the campaign said.
The Arms for Ukraine group added: “The main targets have been power plants, heating plants and water systems. This new phase of the war has had disastrous consequences for the daily lives of civilians. Apartments, schools and kindergartens, shops and factories, but also hospitals have been deprived of power and water.”
The group called on “state and private energy distributors to give Russian diplomats in Prague a taste of their own medicine,” according to iDNES.
“We demand that all Russian-owned buildings be disconnected from gas, water and electricity,” it said.
“Let’s give the Russian embassy in Prague a taste of its own medicine,” one of the originators of the petition, Martin Ondráček, wrote on social media.
“Let’s show Russian diplomats how it feels to be freezing at night, like residents in Kyiv have been, for example”.
Dáme ruské ambasádě v Praze ochutnat jejich vlastní polívčičku. Máme https://t.co/sOl6gWvHqX petici. Chceme aby dodavatelé energií a vody odpojili všechny budovy v Praze, které patří Ruské Federaci. Ať taky po tmě mrznou, stejně jako třeba lidé v Kyjevě. Za podpis a retweet díky. pic.twitter.com/5nWcjzIrfJ
— Dárek pro Putina (@DarPutinovi) November 29, 2022
The Czech Republic’s police have so far accused 49 people of accepting and supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Czech police spokesman Ondrej Moravchik said.
Criminal procedures are ongoing in 86 other cases.
The police investigate around 300 cases related to Ukraine or Ukrainian refugees.
Mr. Moravchik said that about a third of the cases are the so-called cases of approval and support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“86 cases concern the praise of aggression and other similar ways of accepting the murder of Ukrainian civilians,” Moravczik explained to the Czech public radio portal iROZHLAS.cz.
The police triggered the investigation on the basis of two articles of Czech criminal law.
The possibility of using the provisions to investigate cases of support for Russian aggression was proposed by Prosecutor General Igor Striz shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, any signs of support for Russia’s actions in the attacked country can be prosecuted under sections 365 and 405 of the Czech Republic’s Criminal Code, which sanction the approval of crime and denying, questioning, approving and justifying genocide.
Under Czech law, such acts are criminalized and punishable by imprisonment of up to one to three years.
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The standard of living in the Czech Republic declined relative to the European average last year. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in purchasing power parity terms fell by two percentage points to 91% of the EU average, putting the Czech Republic on par with Slovenia. Italy is three percentage points above.
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The minister of labour and social affairs, Marián Jurečka, has proposed increasing the minimum monthly wage by 1,100 crowns to 17,300 crowns from January of next year. The 6.8 percent proposed increase is higher than originally envisaged due to high inflation and predictions that it will continue to rise next year. The proposed hike will now be debated by trade unions and employers’ representatives.
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Real wages in the Czech Republic are falling the most out of any OECD country since the state was founded, according to an analysis by the company Cyrrus. The analysis shows that real wages fell by 8.3 percent this year and that the average Czech full-time employee would have needed to have saved CZK 40,000 during 2022 to maintain the same standard of living as they previously enjoyed.
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The Czech Republic will raise its contribution to investments in the programs of the European Space Agency (ESA) to 62 million euros a year (around CZK 1.6 billion), Transport Minister Martin Kupka (ODS) announced yesterday at a press conference.
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ANO party Chairman Andrej Babiš is now the favourite in the upcoming Czech presidential election according to a Data Collect and Kantar poll conducted for Czech Television. Mr Babiš polled at 27 percent with retired general Petr Pavel falling into second place with 26.5 percent.
Twelve out of the 21 candidates who registered for the presidential election by the November 8 deadline were dismissed after the interior ministry reviewed the registrations, leaving all the businessmen heavyweights out of the race.
All the long-term political favourites remain, and four of the dismissed candidates said they will appeal the decision at the Supreme Administrative Court.
The main reason for the dismissal resulted from the verification of the collected signatures in support of the nomination. Candidates were required to present signatures of at least 20 parliamentarians, 10 senators or 50,000 Czech citizens.
Businessmen Karel Divis, Tomas Brezina and Karel Janecek presented more than 50,000 signatures from their compatriots, but the ministry rejected too many of these signatures taking the number of signatures on the candidates applications beneath the prescribed threshold.
Karel Divis was short by mere 116 signatures after the ministry rejected the incomplete signature files and ran two tests on samples from the remaining 61,438 signatures which yielded 17.847% and 19.765% mistakes rates.
“As per the law a particular amount of signatures was deducted from the overall number of valid signatures and the result of Mr. Karel Divis is 49,884”, said head of the electoral department at the interior ministry Tomas Jirovec. Divis tweeted his team handed over “61,600 signatures […] as opposed to 61,438” which would leave him with 50,016 signatures after the average mistake rate from the ministry’s tests run on his samples is applied. “This is far from over”, a tweet pinned to his profile reads.
Tomas Brezina, known in the country for his business with concrete pavements and other products made of concrete, told Seznam Zpravy his team and himself “were shocked” after they found out that only 45,000 signatures of the 69,000 handed upon registering were valid following the review.
“We made no mistake, and I don’t have an explanation for such a high mistake rate”, Brezina said adding that, “We have not expected such developments”, and that, “We will take those steps that the law enables us to do”.
Karel Janecek, a mathematician by training whose algorithmic trading company RSJ secured him a place no. 92 on country’s Forbes list, and who caused controversy with his loud scepticism towards Covid-19 vaccination, saw signatures shrink from 71,828 to 48,091 after tests ran by the ministry yielded mistake rates over 30%.
“Perhaps a somewhat embarrassing rate of error for a mathematician…”, commented associate professor in Central European politics at UCL Sean Hanley on his Twitter, and Janecek told Czech Radio that “the high mistake rate cannot be very well explained statistically”. Janecek added that he believes the cause will be found, and that “in any case I will appeal and ask for review”.
All the dismissed candidates have until November 30 to appeal the decision which will include also Pavel Zitko who tried to hand part of the signatures also after the initial deadline.
Latest presidential poll by Kantar agency shows ex-premier and populist leader Andrej Babis, who is currently standing trial over a €2mn subsidy fraud, would in the first round obtain 27% trailed by former army chief of staff Petr Pavel with 26.5% and former Mendel University in Brno president Danuse Nerudova with 23.5%.