Summary of newspapers of the previous day – 25. 5. 2009

Pig flu is in Czech Republic; pilot imported infection from New York

Probably in the Czech Republic it is the first case of pig flu. A spokeswoman of the hospital Motol, where the suspicious patient had been examined, Eva Jurinová, said it to the portal iDNES today. Doctors will be sure tomorrow, at the latest on Wednesday, Jurinová presented. In the world there are over twelve thousand of infected; less than a hundred have died. According to iDNES information it is dealt with a young pilot who infected himself in New York in the United States. He passed examination in Prague Motol. The spokeswoman of the hospital, Eva Jurinová, confirmed the occurrence of pig flu virus to iDNES. In her opinion, doctors will be definitively sure tomorrow or the day after.

Minister Jakub Šebesta has presided for the first time at Agriculture and Fishery Council

The Agriculture and Fishery Council for the first time under the Minister Jakub Šebesta´s baton discusses the Green Book to a reform of the Common Fishing Policy, approves Regulations and Decisions concerning rural development in connection with so called Barroso´s parcel of economic renewal, and first of all it approves Conclusions to simplification – one of priorities of the presidency. At the edge of negotiation the Minister Šebesta will meet representatives of European Milk Board, with a general secretary of an association of non-governmental agricultural organizations of all the Twenty seven COPA/COGECA; with a representative of the European Council of Young Farmers CEJA, and other front agrarian EU organizations.

Euro: Districts shorten subsidies to forest owners

Districts cut or completely stop contributions which they paid annually to owners for forest farming. The forest owners, whether private or municipalities, warn that they will not be able to take care properly of property which as a public estate is used by the whole society, a daily Euro wrote in its Monday issue. Reputedly, the owners will not compensate the fall-out of subsidies by incomes from sale of wood because its price was striken down by the crisis to a historical minimum. Some districts do not speak about the reduction of subsidies for forest farming, some wants to maintain them, only sporadically they speak loudly about suspension of contributions.

Mariánskolázeňské oplatky got EU Protected geographical mark

The European Commission approved registration of Mariánskolázeňské oplatky (Mariánské Lázně waffles) (CHZO, Protected Geographical Mark)) in a register of Protected Geographical Marks of the European Union. Besides Hořické trubičky (Hořice tubes) and Štramberské uši (Štramberk ears) or for example Pardubický perník (Pardubice gingerbread), they became already the 19th Czech food which can use this mark. A regulation on the registration of waffles has been already officially published in the Official Reports of the European Union. “The Czech Republic is one of the most successful new EU member states in the area of registration of food with protected names. The registration of Mariánské Lázně waffles in the register of Protected Geographical Marks is also information for consumers that the products originates from a delimited territory and that it was produced by a specific method”.