Final Word from Thursday, February 9, 2006
In its internal magazine, ČEZ referred to the CR as the ČEZ Republic, and it truly is difficult at times to tell whether the government is running ČEZ or ČEZ is running the government. CEO Martin Roman admitted in an interview with HN that ČEZ gives money to politicians for various events. As the elections approach, it would be interesting to see a list of the politicians and the amounts their projects have received. Surely it's a coincidence that one day before ČEZ said it's considering building new power plants in the CR and Slovakia, Premier Jiří Paroubek told the Czech Council on Foreign Relations and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung that the CR should use its EU presidency in 2009 to reach an EU-wide consensus on nuclear energy. Paroubek indicated that the CR should use the EU forum to put pressure on Austria to alter its negative stance. Martin Roman couldn't have said it better. [Czech Republic atomic political contributions]