Summary of newsmakers of the previous day - 15.3.2007

Court cancelled ÚOHS's verdicts to tenders of LČR, the office had mistakes in them

The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) made a mistake in evaluation of all tenders of the state enterprise Lesy of the Czech Republic (LČR). Last year it decided that the firm is a public submitter and within submitting forestry works it has to follow an appropriate law. However, it supported its verdict with wrong paragraphs, said David Raus, a judge of the Regional Court in Brno to ČTK. The used enactments reputedly don't impose any obligations. The Court has already cancelled all verdicts to the old tenders. Nevertheless, the judgement doesn't have to means that LČR didn't break the law.

Great Britain employs 60 thousand workers in agricultural sector from new EU member states

According to recent data of the British government, since the accession of new member states in the EU almost 60 000 workers from Central and East European countries have been employed in agricultural sector in the Great Britain. A number of workers coming from eight countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia), which entered in the EU in May 2004, represent now 10,8 % of the total number of agricultural workers employed in Great Britain's agriculture. After sectors of hotel industry and industry, agriculture is the third biggest sector employing people from mentioned eight countries registered in the Great Britain.

SMO proposed compromise proposal of eco-agriculture support to minister Gandalovič

Representatives of the Marginal Areas Union put forward a completely new compromise proposal for a height and conditions of paying out compensation payments from the Rural Development Program to ecologically managing farmers at today's negotiation to the Minister of Agriculture, Petr Gandalovič. A principle of the proposal elaborated by the PRO-BIO Association to which also the Marginal Areas Union and the Bohemian-Moravian Agricultural Entrepreneurs Union joined consists in the fact so that tariffs from the Rural Development Program would not be shortened areally (from original 2 650 CZK to 1 940 CZK) to all ecological farmers but so that this reduction would concern only farms with parallel conventional production. Hundred-percent ecologically managing farms would have a claim on compensations in a height originally proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture. The three above mentioned associations represents an overwhelming majority of ecological farmers in the Czech Republic.

Czech farmers radicalize

A very complicated situation of Czech farmers owing to non-conceptual governmental policy leads to an inhibition of our agriculture, regardless whether it is dealt with animal or plant production. A number of farms and sown hectares of agricultural land decreases. In animal production and subsequently in processing industry, the biggest problem is the procedure of trade chains which imports still more and more pig and beef meat from abroad. This meat is than sold in their shops and meat of Czech producers is pushed away. As Czech government doesn't stand anyhow actively for farmers and processors, farmers radicalize naturally.