Press Conferences

16. 3. 200916:03

Press Conference after the Meeting of the Government, Held on Monday 16th March 2009

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the press conference after the meeting of the government. I welcome here members of the government, the Prime Minister Mr. Mirek Topolánek, the Minister of Health Mrs. Daniela Filipiová and the Chairman of the Legislative Council of the Government, Mr. Pavel Svoboda. And it will be the Minister of labour and Social Affairs who will come. He has already come. The prime Minister will give his introductory speech.

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: Good afternoon everybody. We added two more items of the agenda to those which you could read in advance. The first one which was announced last week will be presented by Minister Daniela Filipiová and it concerns measures in the sector of health care and the solution of impacts of the financial and economic crisis. It was the material which was approved by the government without problems as the preparation of legal rules is still ahead of us, as well as the entire legislative process. Mrs. Minister will present the content of the individual steps which should ensure quality oh the health care in the current extent. We also added the item of Petr Nečas which concerned salaries of employees. Following the agreement with our social partners we are implementing reduction of number of tariffs, and we cancel the lowest tariff class. We postponed the debate on the Bill on the General Inspection by one week because of the absence of the Minister of Interior. We approved items which we could approve. The items, number of which has been growing lately because of certain pre-election campaign and rather destructive policy of the opposition, will be presented by the Chairman of the Legislative Council of the government and the Minister Pavel Svoboda. We postponed one audit conclusion of the Supreme Audit Office as the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Supreme Audit Office are still working on it. All the audit conclusions were debated in detail and they were approved. That is all what was debated at the meeting of the government; details will be presented by my ministers and you will be able to ask questions.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: I thank the Prime Minister and now the Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Petr Nečas has the floor.

Petr Nečas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, the government decided to simplify the system of tariff salaries in the Czech public sector in which currently three types of tables are used; one basic table and two increased tables. Following the analysis and following the agreement with our social partners and certain trade unions we decided to simplify the entire tariff situation in the framework of the public administration. Instead of three tariff tables there will exist only two tables. We cancelled the basic tariff table because it was used only for certain professions like non-pedagogic workers at schools, workers in the cultural sphere, health care sphere and the sphere of labour and social affairs. It means that salaries of these people will be increased as the increased tables will be used for them. It is a right step because it simplifies the entire system of tariff tables and reduces the number of tables which were below the level of the minimum wage. Apart from this step, the government noted information of the Minister of labour and Social Affairs on the fact that the Trade Union of Workers of Glass and Porcelain Industry will be given one-off subsidy at the amount of 30 million crowns for the solution of the social situation of workers in the glass and porcelain industry as these workers are without wages for several months. The amount will be transferred to the trade unions in this week and it will be redistributed by it.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: I thank the Deputy Prime Minister and now I ask the Minister of Health Mrs. Daniela Filipiová for her information.

Daniela Filipiová, Minister of Health: Good afternoon, I would like to inform you on the basic points of that anti-crisis measure which concerns the health care sphere. As you know this areas was not debated in the framework of the sessions of the National Economic Council of the Government as we supposed that the health care sphere would be solved separately. Just for your information, owing to the economic crisis which is taking place in our country, the amount of money earmarked for the health care is increased. Thus we can thank the former Minister of Health for establishing a reserve fund. That is why health insurance companies should not face any problems as far as coverage of the health care is concerned. One more piece of information for you – in the half of the last year there were more than 20 billion crowns on the account of health insurance companies and at the end of the year there were only 13 billion crowns. It is apparent that certain decrease is taking place. As to those measures which have been prepared by the Ministry of Health together with the Ministry of Finance, the first step is the increase of payments for those persons whose health insurance is paid by the state, in other words for children, unemployed persons and seniors, from the current amount of 677 crowns up to 73 crowns. Furthermore, health insurance companies will be forced to reallocate means from their reserve funds at the amount of 0,5% just to the health care package. Then they will have to limit expenditures of the prevention funds down to 0,3% and we will have to adopt legislation which would regulate the collection of the premium. Every month it will be a control done how the individual payers pay the health insurance payments. Just for your information, in Slovakia that measure increased the collection of premium by 1,2%. Further measure which is rather of long-term character and concerns laws which are now being debated at the Chamber of Deputies, I mean the Act on Health services, the Act on Special Health services and the Act on Rescue Service, that further measure concerns setting of standards, the implementation of which would enable clear definition of above-standard care. Thus we will be able to get legally those grey financial means which exists in the health care sphere to the package of money for the health insurance. Furthermore, we would like to set payments for health means as it is common in case of medicines; it should be transparent and in each group there should be one health mean which will be fully covered by insurance companies. This proposal unambiguously results from the National Plan of the Government for Support of People with Disabilities. Furthermore, the health insurance companies will have to improve their financial management of securing funds. A far as medicines are concerned, we would like to prepare a law which would enable to breach the integrity of a package. It means that in case a doctor prescribes medicine and you will use only one tablet a day, he/she need not give a package of 30 tablets but he/she will give you only one part of the package. The Ministry of Health would also like to introduce the control of health insurance companies so that the guarantees of availability for potential patients would be introduced, so that waiting lists would be transparently published and so that indicators of quality and performance of the individual health companies would be unambiguously set. These measures are included in the Act of health Insurance Companies which is put aside; we do not work on it as all of us know what emotions that bill caused. So, we want only to adopt a bill amending the Act on the Public Health Insurance through which those measures will be implemented. All the measures should come into force as of 1st June of this year and they will be temporary. They will expire as of 31st December 2010.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: I Thank the Lady Minister and now I ask Pavel Svoboda, Chairman of the Legislative Council of the Government for his information.

Pavel Svoboda, Chairman of the Legislative Council of the Government: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, the first proposal which was debated by the government today was the proposal of the Moravian-Silesian Region for promulgation of the Act amending the Act on Public health Insurance which concerned complete revocation of health care fees. A similar proposal was debated by the government at the lat meeting and so you are perhaps able to guess what the result was like. The government expressed its disapproval to this proposal. Further proposal of deputies was the proposal for promulgation of the Act on Support of the Economic Growth and Social Stability which was a proposal containing large list of measures from the millionaire tax up to bonus in case of buying a new car in return of scrapping of an old one. The government stated that the approval had zero potential for reduction of the economic slump. The approval, if any, would mean unproductive increase of budgetary expenditures and such an increase would be would be very dangerous. For that matter, the government solved the economic crisis by its own package of measures and it expressed disapproval to this proposal. Further proposal was the proposal for the promulgation of the Act on Regional Referendum. This proposal was composed in such a way that it should concern issues within competences of regions. It could be used for the Capital Prague; it was based on the principle of local referendum. The government is of the opinion that such a proposal should be debated by the society as a whole to reach a consensus whether it would be based just on the principle of a local referendum or whether also elements of nation-wide referendum would be included in it. The opinion of the government is that such an element of direct democracy must be debated in a nation-wide discussion. Further proposal was the proposal of deputies for promulgation of the Act amending the Penal Code. The proposal concerned the limit of criminal liability of youth which was set to 14 years. The new proposal would raise the limit up to 15 years. The government decided to submit its own proposal which would be debated within broader discussion, including the Senate as it had been promised by the Minister of Justice Jiří Pospíšil. That is why the government expressed a negative stand to this proposal. Further proposal was the proposal of deputies for promulgation of the Act on Ownership of Praha-Ruzyně Airport. It contained a proposal for the ban of the sale of the entire airport including all real estate. The proposal even expects an approval of the Chamber of Deputies as early as in the first reading. It is a proposal which is against the Programme Declaration of the Government and against the resolution of the Government no. 666 of 2008. That is why the government decided on its disapproval to this proposal. And finally the sixth proposal was the proposal of deputies for establishment of the Royal University Central Bohemia in Kutná Hora. The government is of the opinion that it is necessary to increase quality of education at the existing universities instead of establishing new ones. Besides, it points out that that a new university must meet great number of conditions, to provide all types of tuitional programmes, including doctoral programmes and to prepare background of scientific and research activities, which is impossible in case of a university established on a green field. Therefore the government expressed it disapproval to this proposal as well. Thank you Prime Minister.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: I thank the Chairman of the Legislative Council of the Government and now there is time for your questions.

A journalist: I have a question to Minister Nečas. The Supreme Audit Office unearthed shortcomings at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs amounted to 640 million crowns. What will be your response like?

Petr Nečas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs: We will have a discussion with the President of the Supreme Audit Office and that is why this point was not debated. I would like to emphasize that it concerns means in case of which there is a different opinion of the Ministry of Finance and the Supreme Audit Office regarding accounting procedure. It does not concern financial means which would be lost; they were properly carried to accounts, they were properly used and now the disagreement is being solved between different methodological instructions of the Ministry of Finance on the one hand and the Supreme Audit Office on the other hand.

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: It was not debated.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Thank you, Czech TV, Zina Plchová

Czech TV: I have a question concerning the Ministry of Health, a question to the Minister of Health. Was the proposal for merge of the Health Insurance Company of the Ministry of Interior and the Army Health Insurance Company debated? What was the result like?

Daniela Filipiová, Minister of Health: This proposal was not on the agenda of the meeting.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Thank you, one more question ...

Czech TV: I have a question to Mr. Prime Minister. I cannot refrain from asking about information that appeared in media and which has been broadcasted by Czech TV. Had Marek Dalík any commission of yours to negotiate with a journalist of the Czech TV on abandonment of the television report on Petr Wolf?

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: I usually do not respond to those sensation-seeking questions; nevertheless, I will make an exception in this case as this case has broader context. I should say that the deputy Wolf has been under great pressure since the presidential election, he has been threatened and he has been under pressure of colleagues of his and other members of the Social Democratic party. I did not know anything about the appointment with that man; I cannot say with that journalist as it would be an offence of all the other journalists. I do not do such things. It is true that I asked Marek Dalík to help the deputy Wolf in that witch-hunt. I repeat again that in the Čunek case lots of procedural mistakes were made in the course of investigation and those mistakes made the legal proceedings impossible. It is true that I asked Mr. Dalík to help the deputy with certain media pressure so that he could face the situation. Members of the Social Democratic Party exert apparent pressure to media, and you know about it, in spite of the fact that only Právo, a daily which cannot be suspected as standing on my side, showed courage to publish those matters and that practice, whether I mean through the telephone, SMS or a personal pressure. I should say I do not know anything about the content of the report and I am not going to watch it. Nobody could be left calm learning about that illegal ham acting that had spread in media. Information is acquired my mean of hidden cameras, hidden Dictaphones, through illegal practice and it is something that I will always fight against. That appointment did not prove anything. Perhaps it would be more interesting is that journalist published content of appointments with people who brought him those material, conversations with the police of the Czech Republic, for example about the Čunek case, as all people would be more interested in it. I would be interested in it definitely. I am not willing to say more about it. I am not going to watch it; I am not going to read it. I have not time to deal with that ham acting; if there is somebody who has time for that, I congratulate him on it.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: I thank the Prime Minister. Further question, please.

Czech TV: I have one more question to the Minister of Health. Could you say how much money that anti-crisis package will bring in this year and how much in the next year?

Daniela Filipiová, Minister of Health: Yes, I was just looking at those figures and I intended to inform you of them. Through the increase of revenues of the public health insurance system by means of the enhancement of payments of the state, financial means of the operational fund and the prevention fund will be reallocated and this measure should bring more than 4 billion crowns in this year and more than 7 billion crowns in the next year; the other measures, about which I have mentioned, should bring about 4,5 billion crowns each year. Of course, these estimates are preliminary ones and they might change as well as potential losses of health insurance companies. No one is able to estimate future trends. Current estimates are between 3,3 and more than 10 billion crowns and in the next year about 10 billion crowns as well. Nevertheless, these measures proposed should cover those losses.

Petr Nečas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs: I would just add that regarding all those speculations that occurred in media last week, no ceilings of public health and social insurance will be changed. These ceilings will remain unchanged.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Thank you, further question. Právo.

Právo: Good afternoon. Mr. Prime Minister, I would like to ask about the matter mentioned in Mladá fronta daily. Do you regard as correct that Mr. Dalík intercedes on your behalf with journalists?

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: I do not think that what you are saying is true. Therefore I have nothing to say about it.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Further question – Nova TV.

TV Nova: I have a question to Mr. Minister Nečas. When will you be dealing with that audit conclusion of the Supreme Audit Office? When will you present your standpoint?

Petr Nečas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs: I will do it after the government adopts a resolution on this matter and after we debate it with the President of the Supreme Audit Office.

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: I would like to add information so that to avoid a confusion. There are methodical instructions of the Ministry of Finance which are bound for the individual ministries from the point of view of invoicing of particular items. There exist an inquiry of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) and the NKÚ has a different legal opinion and a different methodology as far as invoicing of particular items is concerned. We agreed that representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the NKÚ would meet and they would try to reach a consensus. The problem does not consist in a methodical training but in correct invoicing of those financial means. In this case it is rather a problem of methodology. I would like to exclude any illegal manipulation with those means. It is rather a matter of an agreement on the methodology and its effectuality. That is why this particular case will be debated together with further package of audit conclusions of the NKÚ and you will be informed about it of course.

Petr Nečas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs: It is a matter of harmonization of different legal opinions of the Ministry of Finance, which is according to our laws a methodical organ for central organs of the state administration, and the Supreme Audit Office. The NKÚ has also different legal opinion from that of the European Commission regarding using the European funds. There is no other problem here. There has not been lost a single heller, a single crown. The problem is that a particular entry was invoiced in the item no.328 and the opinion of the NKÚ is that it should have been invoiced in the item no. 156.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Thank you, the RTA.

RTA: I have a question to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health which concerns the disapproval to the proposal of the Moravian-Silesian region on revocation of fees in the health care sphere. Thus the proposal of the Social Democratic Party for total revocation of fees was definitely refused. What will be further steps of the government like regarding exacting of those fees?

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: I must correct your statement. That proposal was not definitely refused. A you know a negative standpoint of the government does not mean that the respective proposal is not debated at the Chamber of deputies. This proposal was not definitely refused. The government just took its stand to it and you must have expected that stand. The government cannot go against its own Programme Declaration and against our laws. The government cannot breach the law. As to the next procedure concerning fees, the reduced version which does not concern children and which was approved is the final solution for us. In case the Parliament adopts a different version the government will have to accommodate to it. It would mean minus of 10 billion crowns about which we were talking. We will have to prepare another health package for crisis situations. The Social Democratic Party is not interested in this, of course because as you can see that method "the worse the better" function well. No government can implement those measures promised by the opposition, in particular in the time of recession and economic problems. I regard that approach a destructive and absolutely incorrect. Pharmacies are destabilized in fact and the approach of regions has already destabilized the entire system. It was intention and it was bad intention which consequently impair the entire health care system and which would cause problems concerning the quality of health care that our citizens are used to. I have nothing to add to this. It is proposed only for the purpose of the opposition and therefore I do not want to debate it seriously.

Daniela Filipiová, Minister of Health: On websites of the Ministry of Health you can find exact data of the individual health insurance companies which the ministry has. There you can find exact information on premium collection, on economies, and on reduction of the number of doctor's calls. All the data you can find on websites of the Ministry of Health.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Thank you for your answers. Further question, please.

TV Prima: I would like to know, Mr. Prime Minister, whether the proposal of the Green Party for withdrawal of Mrs. Vesecká from her position was debated at the meeting.

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: I cannot see any reason for doing it. Fortunately those political parties do not control the government. The government is a coalition government and therefore the idea of solving problems of the Green Party in the government is absurd.

TV Prima: Are you of the opinion then that Mrs. Vesecká should remain in her office? You indicated certain changes in the justice sphere ...

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: I just said that I had noticed a managerial mistake at a different organ and I insist on it.

TV Prima: Will not you disclose any changes then?

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: I cannot see any reason for doing it.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Thank you for your answer, further question please. Radiožurnál.

Radiožurnál: Mr. Prime Minister, can I ask you for a brief commentary on that proposal of members of the Social Democratic Party for promulgation of the law based on which sale of the Prague Airport should be banned?

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: It is a Bolshevik-like proposal which would markedly transfer competences given by the Constitution to the Parliament. I would say that a breakthrough in this respect was the Traumatology Hospital in Brno. I regard proposals of this type as a real destruction of the arrangement reached after 1989 - the balanced system of the legislative, executive and judicial power. I regard this proposal as destructive because if you want to know my arguments why it is so bad it would be enough to read proposals of Bohuslav Sobotka and his arguments when he submitted to the government his proposal for privatization of the Prague Airport in 2003. When you read his arguments hey are very similar to my arguments. That is why it is useless to comment it.

Petr Nečas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs: I would just add that it would be enough to find statements of leaders of the Social Democratic Party, including its chairman Paroubek and including Mr. Bohuslav Sobotka made in autumn 2006 when they criticized the intention of the government to sell 7% of shares of the ČEZ to acquire financial means for the Transport Infrastructure Fund. Then they called the government to solve the lack of financial mean through the privatization of the Prague Airport.

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: It the interest of the opposition is to prevent the Topolánek´s government from the privatization of the airport, and then I must ask how the next government would privatize it because we are willing to let the opposition monitor the privatization process, which is relatively long and transparent. This offer has already been put forward. If somebody claims that we will get a lower price, then I must say that the phenomenon of so called lower price is very uneconomic argument. At present the price may be lower than that after some five years as there is certain inflation here. We are of the opinion that on the contrary – the price need not be lower and the tender will show it. It is one of few opportunities for liquid companies who have funds to invest to a project which is without risks and which has a long-term character. The interest of companies may be greater as companies and banks which have money are afraid of lending it just because of little trust in the market, in little trust in projects submitted. It is not this case. That is why that sudden response of members of the Social Democratic Party. They wanted to sell the airport themselves and based on their arguments that it was necessary to do it quickly the current approach seems to be motivated by their partial objectives. Let everybody think about their reasons.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: Lidové noviny.

Lidové noviny: Good afternoon. I would like to ask Mrs. Minister of Health a question about that package of measures as there are also amendments to laws there. The deadline in June is quite early deadline. Have you some agreements with deputies made? Do you expect any problems in the Chamber of Deputies or a smooth progress?

Daniela Filipiová, Minister of Health: As far as I know, members of the Social Democratic Party presented their attitudes to this proposal last week through media. I have not spoken to them and as far as I am informed they did not have any problems with it. Nevertheless, a certain change in their views may occur. It is a matter of negotiation. We must work very quickly as you are right that time is inexorable.

Mirek Topolánek, Prime Minister: There are only two options here. One of them is to find funds on the revenue and expenditure side and to cover that drop resulting from the economic problems and the recession in the Czech Republic. The second one is to decrease the budget, which might be complicated because the insurance schemes for this year are already approved, and to decrease the quality of the health care. I regard this option as unacceptable and so I do not expect the Chamber of Deputies to veto our plan. We can discuss some details and we are prepared for the discussion.

Jana Bartošová, government spokesperson: I thank for your answers. Is there any further question? There is none. Thank you for your attention. Good-bye.