Summary of newspapers of the previous days –10.12. – 12.12.2010

Czech Republic is worried about reserves of subterranean waters; it will examine them

The state invests 623 million crowns in mapping of subterranean water reserves to have actual data. Calculations available at the present are often 20 and more years old. Experts are worried that the reserves owing to climatic changes and immoderate consumption could run low. It should have an adverse effect on drinking supply of the population. The European Union should help with financing. “There is a serious lack of information on capacities of usable reserves of subterranean waters in many areas. So, data about possibilities to draw are missing”, Petr Mixa from the Czech Geological Service (ČGS), which has the project in charge, said it to journalists today.

It is getting dark above fate of potential first civil initiative

Yesterday (on the 9th of December), the organization Greenpeace and Avaaz pass a petition on the European Commission with a million of signatures of people who request that other genetically modified products (GMO) would be stopped to grow. They hope that European executive will approach the document as the first civil initiative - an institute introduced by Lisbon treaty, however, strict rules of which are still being elaborated. To a great disappointment of the petition initiators, the organization Greenpeace and Avaaz, which process on-line campaigns, it was overtaken instead of by a chairman of the European Commission José Manuel Barrosa “only” by the Euro-commissioner for health and consumer policy John Dalli.

Minister supported Bio-schools

An unusual “distribution of Present” was brought to a school dining-hall in the street K Zátiší in Příbram II on Mikuláš (Nicholas) Monday. However, it was not dealt with a huge amount of snow which still not-removed from last days made harder an arrival to the resident primary school. The Minister of Agriculture, Ivan Fuksa, came to visit and examine a progress of a project “Bio-schools - introduction of bio-foods in school facilities”. Not because of favouritism, because a chief of the department had been a town mayor until recently and knows the school and dining-hall management very well, but because that this dining-hall lead an example in the project for others in the town and the region: in the region Příbram it has started as the first (an the only one) started with a more systematic usage of bio-raw-materials in children menu in frame of the project Bio-schools - from September.

Beer consumers change significantly owing to tax, they drink from plastic or soft drinks

Czech breweries have passed one of the worse years over last twenty years. Beer consumption has decreased more than by tenth and expectation for the next year are not optimistic, too. In spite of that there are segments on whose growth the breweries bet - soft drinks, new packages, and beer from a tank will further increases. Brewers agree that this year was painful for them. Czech beer consumption has fallen roughly by 12 percents. They attach blame above all to an intensive increase of consumption tax by 33 percents at beginning of this year. “It had a fundamental impact on brewing industry and in a combination with the economic decrease it caused a material decrease of beer market”, Jiří Mareček, a spokesman of Plzeňský Prazdroj, tells. Also representatives of other breweries confirm that.