Czech Republic

The look back at 2014 will include mainly good news. While comparing to traditional benchmark – the average performance of the European Union – the Czech GDP growth rate was significantly higher than the growth rate of the EU. The Czech economy has had a faster growth than the EU in five quarters in a row.

According to the analysis provided by the Czech Statistical Bureau, which was devoted to the macroeconomic aspects of tourism in the Czech Republic, tourists still spend more money in the Czech Republic than Czech tourists do abroad.

The debt which was devalued at the Prague Castle, has been back in 32 minutes and 51 seconds. And then again. And again. And again.

Although we tend to see the situation of the countries in East-Central Europe as one in which they are forced to choose between the East and the West, in reality, these countries do not have much of a choice.

Some steps of the Czech government, leaded by social democrat Bohuslav Sobotka, are strange. It is like to paint a house with white color, and then repaint it with black to secure it is not too white.

At the quarter-century mark of the Visegrad states’ freedom from the USSR, Johannes Wachs examines the Group’s role in today’s European Union.

The Tax Freedom Day has arrived! The last Tuesday was the first day when people have started to earn on their own and not for the State and needs of public finances.

Last but not least, the Free Citizens Party has succeeded! Already in the parliamentary elections in 2013, this party showed that all competitors should respect their transition from a community of libertarians discussing mainly on social networks and in pubs into a professional political party.

The EP election 2014 can be characterized mainly by a very low attendance of voters in the Czech Republic. Only 18.2 % of voters threw their ballots into boxes in deserted polling stations, in comparison with the 28.22% attendance of voters in 2009. This aspect has shaped the results very much.

Republikon Institute used data available from Eurobarometer to construct three categories among voting-age population in Europe: eurosceptics, who are dissatisfied with Europe; “soft eurooptimists”, who, in general, are comfortable with the depth of European integration, and “federalists”, who would give more power to Brussels. The Institute then looked at the ratio of these categories in different countries – with a special focus on Central Eastern Europe.