EU: Exports and low unemployment fuel rapid growth in central Europe - by James Shotter

Central Europe’s economies have continued their rapid expansion, outpacing their peers in western Europe as rock bottom interest rates and record low unemployment fuel consumer spending.

With the eurozone’s recovery also pushing up exports from the region, Romania’s economy grew at the fastest annual rate in the EU in the second quarter.

The Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary also reported strong growth, according to preliminary data on Wednesday.

Romania grew by 5.7 per cent year on year in the second quarter. The Czech Republic grew by 4.5 per cent, Poland by 4.4 per cent, Hungary by 3.6 per cent and Slovakia by 3.1 per cent. The EU grew by 2.3 per cent.

Read more: Exports and low unemployment fuel rapid growth in central Europe

Times OnLine: EU presidency in turmoil after Mirek Topolanek Government collapse - by David Charter

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EU presidency in turmoil after Mirek Topolanek Government collapse - by David Charter

The leadership of the European Union was plunged into disarray last night when the Government holding the rotating presidency collapsed after losing a vote of no confidence in the Czech parliament. Mirek Topolanek offered his resignation as Prime Minister, although he was expected to stay on to ensure continuity for the EU presidency, not least because he was due to represent Europe's non-G20 countries at next week's London Summit - and host Barack Obama when he visits Prague.

Ticket News: Madonna tour recession proof in Europe - by Bob Grossweiner & Jane Cohen

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Madonna tour recession proof in Europe - by Bob Grossweiner & Jane Cohen

To date, Madonna's itinerary lists 18 of the proposed 24 to 25 European concerts for her Sticky & Sweet Tour 2009. There are no North American shows on the horizon.Not all of her European shows have sold out. There are still tickets on sale in Milan, ITA for July 14 and in Copenhagen, DEN, for August 11.

Tickets go on sale for three other shows this coming weekend: her July 28 concert in Hamburg, GER, and the August 18 performance in Munich, GER, go on sale February 13. Tickets go sale for the August 14 Prague, CZE, concert on February 14.

IHT: Czech carmaker Skoda reports almost 16 percent rise in 1Q sales

Skoda doing well world-wide

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Czech carmaker Skoda reports almost 16 percent rise in 1Q sales

Czech carmaker Skoda Auto AS, a unit of German manufacturer Volkswagen AG, said Monday its sales in the first quarter of 2008 rose 15.7 percent on the year. Skoda Auto sold a total of 173,474 cars in the first three months of the year, the company said in a statement. "The first quarter results were also positively influenced by growing demands on the markets of eastern Europe and China," the statement said. It said it sold 27,461 units in the eastern European region, up 38.6 percent from the same period last year. Skoda Auto also delivered 16,212 cars in the period to China, where sales began in June. Skoda Auto delivered more than 27,000 cars there in 2007. Skoda Auto delivered a record 630,032 cars in 2007. It said it aims to boost annual car output to 1 million by 2010 and to 1.5 million in 10 years.

ceskenoviny.cz: Czechs trust UN, EU more than NATO says poll

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Czechs trust UN, EU more than NATO says poll

Czechs trust UN, EU more than NATO-poll

Czechs still trust the United Nations and the European Union more than NATO, which is controlled by the US, according to the results of a poll.The number of Czechs who trust all three international organisations prevails over the number of those who do not trust them, the poll showed. The United Nations enjoys the highest support among Czech citizens as almost three-fifths of respondents or 59 percent said they trusted it while 24 percent said they did not trust the UN. The UN is followed by the EU that is trusted by 55 percent of Czechs while 37 percent do not trust it, and NATO that enjoys support of 44 percent of Czechs while 40 percent do not trust it. Two-thirds of Czechs are satisfied with the Czech Republic's membership in the UN while 17 percent are dissatisfied with it, and 61 percent are satisfied with EU membership and 30 percent are not satisfied with it.

EU-Bus: Italian PM "bitter" over anti-European attitudes at summit

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Italian PM "bitter" over anti-European attitudes at summit

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi admitted feeling "bitter" over the lack of pro-European sentiment on display at the EU summit this week, in an interview published Sunday in the La Repubblica daily. "As a politician, I am of course satisfied with the result" of the summit, which ended with an agreement on a new treaty for the European Union, "but as a pro-European, let me be bitter at the spectacle I saw," said Prodi, the former chief of the European Commission.

"The determination of governments to deny any emotional aspect of Europe is painful to me," he said, citing Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Britain as the worst offenders.

ceskenoviny.cz: Czech town residents reject U.S. Brdy radar plan in referendum

A US Interceptor Missile

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Czech town residents reject U.S. Brdy radar plan in referendum

"The inhabitants of Mirosov, a town situated near the western edge of the Brdy military training grounds, voted against the U.S.-planned construction of a military radar base in Brdy in a local referendum today.

The referendum did not focus directly on the radar which the USA wants to be part of its missile defense shield. Mirosov residents in the referendum asked the town councillors to do their utmost to prevent the radar's construction in Brdy, Mirosov Mayor Vlastimil Sykora said. A total of 51.51 percent of Mirosov's 1,786 inhabitants took part in the referendum. Out of them, 867 people said they want the councillors to struggle against the radar and 30 said they did not wish it.Most Czechs are opposed to the project, public opinion polls have repeatedly shown. According to the latest poll, 64 percent of Czechs are against the plan.

The USA wants to place a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic and ten missile interceptors in Poland. The US says the base is meant as defense against possible missile attacks from countries such as Iran and North Korea."

Union Leader - Czech Republic: Bush worships democracy, but he should study history - by Pat Buchanan

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Czech Republic: Bush worships democracy, but he should study history - by Pat Buchanan

Last week, at Czermin Palace in Prague, George Bush delivered his latest epistle on democracy as mankind's salvation, as though he had learned nothing since ordering the invasion of Iraq -- to bring the blessings of democracy to Mesopotamia and the Middle East. President Bush began by paying tribute to the founding father of Czech democracy. "Nine decades ago, Tomas Masaryk proclaimed Czechoslovakia's independence based on the "ideals of democracy.'" Well, that may be what the Masaryk said, but it is not exactly what he did. In 1918, he did indeed proclaim the independence of Czechoslovakia, confirmed by the Allies at Paris. But inside the new Czechoslovakia, built on the "ideals of democracy," were 3 million dissident Germans who wished to remain with Austria and half a million Hungarians who wished to remain with Hungary. Many Catholic Slovaks had wanted to remain with Catholic Hungary. Against their will, all had been consigned to Masaryk's Czech-dominated nation.

Free Internet Press: Czech Villagers Reject U.S. 'Star Wars' Facility Planned For Their 'Backyard

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Czech Villagers Reject U.S. 'Star Wars' Facility Planned For Their 'Backyard

The Pentagon has selected Brdy in the Czech Republic as the nerve center for the European platform of its contentious missile defense program, planning to site a radar station on one of the hills here which would be capable of throwing a very fine beam thousands of miles into space to detect and track small objects outside the Earth's atmosphere. Should one of those small objects be an Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile, so the theory goes, the Brdy radar will guide one or more of the 10 interceptor missiles, to be installed in Poland, which will fly into space to "kill" the enemy rocket before any harm is done.

"It's nonsense," said Vaclav Konicek, a Czech army captain for 21 years, who now works as a security guard for a Volkswagen dealer. "Anyone round here who is sane is against this."

NANOWERK: Nanotechnology gains ground in Czech Republic

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Nanotechnology gains ground in Czech Republic

The emerging nanotechnology field is gaining ground in the Czech Republic with successes reported by local researchers and the commercial sector. To ensure continued development in the new science, VŠB–Technical University of Ostrava (VŠB-TU), North Moravia, is launching the first program in nanotechnology in the Czech Republic, and other universities are also starting courses.

Although none of the countries in the Central and Eastern European region is significantly ahead of the Czech Republic in nanotechnology education, the country “shouldn’t rest on its laurels as things are moving ahead also in other countries in CEE,“ said Alexandr Prokop of the TCAS CR. Prokop is the national contact point for the nanotechnology and space technology sections of the European Union’s research & development (R&D) programs.

Prague Daily MOnitor: Debunking the myth of "Eastern Europe"

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Debunking the myth of "Eastern Europe"

"Prague and Wenceslas Square, which is really a big avenue, are symbols of the economic progress that the Czech Republic has made since the overthrow of Communism in 1989. But here is the rub: The Czechs have shaken off the material deprivation that accompanied Communism, but they can't get seem to get rid of the labels."

ITAR-TASS: Russia ready for “asymmetrical” response to US NMD in Europe

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Russia ready for “asymmetrical” response to US NMD in Europe

Russia will have to find an “asymmetrical” response to maintain strategic stability if U.S. missile defence elements are deployed in Czech Republic and Poland, Chairman of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots Andrei Kokoshin said.

“Representatives of the Russian top military command have rightfully pointed out that the deployment of a radar station in the Czech Republic will increase the surveillance of strategic deterrence forces in northern Russia, where a considerable part of submarines with ballistic missiles are stationed,” Kokoshin said in an interview with the military daily Krasnaya Zvezda published on Saturday."

Note EU-Digest: One can only wonder what the US would do if Russia placed a missile and radar defence network on the US-Mexican or Canadian-US border under the same pretext?

Interfax: Russia - Duma statement on US missile defense planned in Europe

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Duma statement on US missile defense planned in Europe

Members of the Russian State Duma unanimously adopted a statement on Friday cautioning that plans to deploy elements of the U.S. global missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland may cause a new split in Europe and provoke another round of an arms race.

Unilateral decisions related to the deployment of such elements in the Czech Republic and the Republic of Poland "are pointless from the point of view of countering potential or imaginary threats from a number of states in the Middle East and the Far East, have already begun provoking a new split in Europe and prompting another round of an arms race," the statement says.

American Thinker: The Almighty Euro beats the Royal Navy-by James Lewis

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The Almighty Euro beats the Royal Navy-by James Lewis

Just a few weeks ago the EU celebrated its Fiftieth Anniversary, headlined by the BBC and Guardian with a flood of gaudy hype about the unity and successes of Europe. Europe, it appears, has "kept the peace for fifty years," all by itself. But that brave record doesn't extend to supporting Britain against a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions by the lolly-gagging fascisti in Iran. Could it be that France and Germany are more worried about their 14 billion euros of trade with the mullahs?

Well, the real EU is a Potemkin Village, all jolly peasants and no bricks. It is held together by a grand bargain: Germany pays for French farm supports, and France fronts for Germany's return to international standing and power. Britain came in only as an afterthought, to sustain the grand illusion. But today we see what that really means when the chips are down.

Note EU-Digest: What "hogwash" by the American Thinker - the British have always boycotted every move towards unity in the EU and don't give a damned thing about the future of Europe as long as it serves them. If they want more symphathy from "continental" Europe they better get off the lap of uncle Sam and behave as Europeans. That also goes for the Poles and the Czechs

The Budapest Times: Czech Premier defends USA missile system decision - "Czech decission not compatible with the EU’s general interest in security"

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Czech Premier defends USA missile system decision - "Czech decission not compatible with the EU’s general interest in security"

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek last Friday defended his country’s decision to begin talks with the United States about building part of its controversial missile defence system on Czech soil. “The Czech Republic has the right to sign a bilateral agreement on the system,” MTI news agency reported him as saying after meeting Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány.

The decision has drawn criticism from European Union foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana, who last Thursday said that “sovereignty has to be made compatible with the EU’s general interest in security.”Russia is also unhappy about the system, and has warned it could spark a Cold War-style arms race. The US claims the system is intended to defend against what they call "a missile threat from Iran". - A claim similar to one 4 years ago about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

OTTAWACITIZEN.COM: Europe's champion versus the nit-pickers - "you won't know how good you have it until its gone" - by Keith Spicer

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Europe's champion versus the nit-pickers - "you won't know how good you have it until its gone" - by Keith Spicer

Europe's anthem shouldn't be Beethoven-Schiller's Ode to Joy, with its, "All men will become brothers under thy gentle wing." It should be Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi with, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone.

"Too many Europeans, aping shallow leaders, barely recognize Europe in their lives -- much less bless it for their happiness. Amid scattered celebrations of a uniting Europe's 50th anniversary, are Europeans losing their great historic vision?

Europe's petty demons have been crawling out from under rocks. Many politicians, especially in France, Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic, almost daily denigrate Europe. They play parish-pump politics, blaming "Brussels" (the EU capital) for anything they can't fix at home. Note EU-Digest: We can not let the "European Dream" of peace and prosperity become a "pipe-dream" because of ignorant self centered inward looking politicians in Britain, the Netherlands, France, Poland, and the Czech Republic. These countries do not form the majority among the 27 EU partner members and must not be allowed to destruct it."