Summary of newsmakers of the previous day – 10.10. 2007

Czech forests die, improvement does not come

Health state of Czech forests will not improve and is worse than in most of European countries. An alarming information is published in a report on state of environment in the Czech Republic in 2006. Trees still have not recovered from acid rains which hit them in seventieth and eightieth years. “Especially older trees are afflicted. The younger don’t suffer so much but a high content of sulfur in land remains”, Jakub Kašpar from the Ministry of Environment says.

Czech pork butcher will face troubles in using traditional terms

Czech pork butchers are under threat of complications in use traditional terms of some pork butcher’s products – among others “špekáček”, “kabanos” and “spišské párky”. Slovaks and Poles asked the EU for trademarks for some smoked products which are produced in the Czech Republic. Czech Euro-representative Jan Březina informed on it. If Brussels bestowed the trademarks, Czech producers would have to keep the registered procedures in the production which could mean new investments.

Bread will mark up by the end of year as much as by quarter

After dairy-men also bakers are going to raise prices. Bread and rolls will stop to be cheap food which we can waste because of its low price. Jan Jedlička, a chief of the biggest bakery in the republic United Bakeries which control a fifth of the market, send word to Czech consumers. “It not possible henceforward so that a roll would cost less than a packet of cigarettes and bread and pastry would be by so much cheaper in comparison with neighbouring countries”, Jedlička says. Bakers talk about raise in prices annually, however, this time they have a bit more cogent explanation: price of cereals. It is much more than in the past under pressure of introduction of bio-fuels.

Money for “eco-projects” is far away

The operational program Environment most likely will not be approved this year. A reason is disputes with Brussels and municipalities regarding contracts between water-supply firms and towns. Thereby over 60 billion crowns for financing of building of sewage treatment plants as well as 150 billion crowns for the operation program Environment are blocked. The dispute with Brussels has been dragging for almost three years. The European Commission (EK) does not like contracts between foreign water-supply firms and towns and municipalities. Brussels dislike a length of contracts and in some cases it doubts about transparency of selective proceedings for an operator.