Press Conferences

27. 4. 20078:54

Press conference held after the meeting of the government on Wednesday, 25th April, 2007

Martin Schmarcz, Head of the Press Department of the Office of the Government: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the press conference after the night meeting of the Czech government. I thank for your attention, I thank for your endurance. I also thank present ministers, the Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra and the Minister of Finance Miroslav Kalousek who, as I suppose, will inform you briefly on issues, which have been debated at the meeting of the government.
Alexandr Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs: I wish you nice night time and I thank you for your heroic performance, for your staying here. Let me choose just some of important issues of the agenda that you might be interested in, so that we would not have to stay here long. First, in the framework of the first point of the agenda, Information on current European issues, an additional point was included in the agenda – Position of the Government to Negotiation on the Institutional Reform of the EU, i.e. to the negotiation concerning the future of the European Constitution. The position is based on the agreement reached in the framework of the coalition. There were two coalition meetings concerning this issue, the first one was a working meeting at the beginning of this week, the other at the "C9 level" (meeting of nine representatives of coalition parties) about two weeks ago. Based on this position those six points, which had been published after the coalition negotiation, are specified in a very detailed way. The material has about six pages. We suppose that the document gives a mandate to Czech negotiators and concurrently, the Prime Minister will inform about the position the Chamber of Deputies next week; I suppose it will be on Wednesday in the afternoon. Regarding the position, we are of the opinion that the treaty should not include quasi-constitutional symbols, we are of the opinion that the new treaty should not lead to worsening of weight of votes in case of majority voting. And as far as our country is concerned, the treaty should enable two-way flexibility as to the transfer of powers and competences; not only from the national level to the EU level but also in the opposite direction. It should also set clear rules, which would enable further enlargement of the EU in the future and finally, it should not include that new document – the Charter of Human Rights, because we think that in this case double standard of human right would be implemented in Europe. The document will be at your disposal and I think that it is not necessary to go into details now. Furthermore, as to the issues of the regular meeting of the government, the government approved the Bill amending the Act on Bankruptcy or the Insolvency Act. An issue, you might be interested in, is that the government approved the Amendment of the Act on Mining Activities and it approved, apart from other things, transfer of the Mining Office from Prague to Ostrava. Furthermore I would like to put emphasise on points number nine, ten and eleven. I suppose it will be the submitter who will inform you on the point no. nine; it concerns reducing number of staff in the state administration by 3% annually by 2010. Points number ten and eleven have been approved. The point number ten was the Report on the outcomes of activities of the State Nuclear Office for Nuclear Safety concerning state supervision over nuclear safety and radiation protection on 2006. The point number eleven has been approved by the government; it was the Report on fulfilment of commitments resulting from the conclusions of the Melk Process and Follow-Up measures in 2006. In other words, the government took the report into account and stated that the Melk Process has continued exactly in accordance with the time schedule and therefore the government decided to terminate activities of the Commission for the Assessment of the Environmental impacts of the Temelín Nuclear Power Station. I think that it is all regarding issues, which are an object of public's attention, and therefore I would finish my exposé and I give the floor to further speaker.
Martin Schmarcz, Head of the Press Department of the Office of the Government: Now I ask the Minister of Finance to inform you of his point, which concerns salaries in the state administration.
Miroslav Kalousek, Minister of Finance: Thank you. I had several points on the agenda. If you wish I will answer also the other ones, but that one, which is an object of the most interest of media, is the point that concerns salaries of employees in the state administration and employees in the budgetary sphere and reducing number of employees in the state administration. So, the definite standpoint of the government is, and I am very pleased I can refute various myths and alarming news concerning number of teachers, firemen and members of prison service that are to be dismissed, the basic conclusion of the policy of the government is: 3% decrease in the state administration is an obligation which s based on the Programme Declaration of the Government. It concerns, of course, just employees of the state administration and therefore, just for your information, I state that teachers, firemen and policemen are not employees of the state administration. Besides, there are about 459 000 of employees in the entire budgetary sphere, where the annual increase represents 1%, it means about 1,7 billion crowns. Budgetary resources of the state by 2010 enable increase of salaries by 1.5% annually. It will be the personnel policy of ministries, which will be decisive for the real increase of salaries. To explain it briefly, it is a matter of ministries, whether they will pay more money to less employees or less money to more employees. It will be the personnel policy of ministries, which will be decisive for the real salary increase at the individual ministries. The salary increase will be ensured by two tools, i.e. the extensive one – the annual increase by 1,5%, and the intensive one – reduction of employees, which depends on the individual ministries.
Martin Schmarcz, Head of the Press Department of the Office of the Government: I thank the Minister of Finance and now there is time to your questions. Are there any questions, please?
Jitka Hanžlová, Radiožurnál: I would like to ask a question regarding the issue you were talking about. It concerns the decrease; have you talked about the decrease at the respective ministries or it is just in a general level so far?
Miroslav Kalousek, Minister of Finance: I think that the most important is the financial framework. The financial framework - that extensive tool, which means 1,5% salary increase; and the individual ministers will inform us on the real reduction of staff at their ministries by the summer. We assume that the minimal number at the amount of 3% will be binding for them in the state administration. Apart from the state administration, it depends completely on their personnel policy. It means that the real salary increase at the individual ministries will be known only after this decision. I ask you to distinguish two categories – the increase of salaries from the existing salary base and the increase of salaries, which will reflect reduction of number of employees apart from those 1,5% increase.
Martin Schmarcz, Head of the Press Department of the Office of the Government: I thank the minister. An additional question of Český rozhlas.
Jitka Hanžlová, Radiožurnál: I would revert to the Melk Process. Those agreements were fulfilled, they were finished. At what level will the following negotiation on the security of Temelín power station be held with Austria?
Alexandr Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs: There was a discussion about this issue. It was mentioned there that the system of information, which is provided by the Czech side is absolutely above-standard and there is no parallel within Europe, in fact. We have clear conscience in this respect. The resolution adopted by the government respects this reality. We are of the opinion that it would be good to transfer this issue to a normal regime of a standard information agreement; nevertheless, we are aware of the fact that the Austrian side is not ready to take this step jointly with us. In means that it is stated in the resolution that the relevant ministers will be on the one hand continuing in realization of commitments resulting from the Melk Process, and on the other hand it is emphasized there our readiness to transfer the issue to the regime of an information agreement. The report has been taken into account. The activities of the respective Commission for Assessment of Environmental Impacts of the Temelín Nuclear Power Station have been terminated, because the Commission had not relevant importance.
Martin Schmarcz, Head of the Press Department of the Office of the Government: Thank you. Do you have any further question? If there are not any I finish this night or rather morning press conference. Good night.