Funding for eight projects in the Elbe/Labe Euroregion approved

The Elbe/Labe Euroregion manages a small project fund filled with EU funds to support German-Czech projects. At today's meeting of the local steering committee in Děčín, eight project applications with a total funding volume of 69,236.80 euros were approved. These include, for example, holiday camps, sports games, joint excursions or cooperation between dog sports clubs. The applicants came from Sebnitz, Dolní Poustevna, Bad Gottleuba, Tisá, Teplice, Bannewitz, Krásná Lípa, Obercunnersdorf, Bärenstein, Česká Kamenice and Dresden.

You can find out more about the funding opportunities offered by the Small Projects Fund at www.elbelabe.eu/kpf . We would be delighted to receive many good project proposals. Please spread the word!

To the list of approved projects

Ústí District modernizes Rumburk Hospital

Five years ago, the hospital in Rumburk was still a nursing case. Insolvent and threatened with closure. Some departments were closed, there was not only a lack of money, but also of staff. In between there was the takeover by the hospital holding company of the Ústí district and the Covid pandemic, during which the hospital regained importance. Especially since the borders were temporarily closed and patients could no longer be cared for by Saxon clinics as once planned.
The situation for the hospital has now improved. In the coming years, the district will invest heavily again. The equivalent of 37.5 million euros is planned. The money will be used to renovate the polyclinic, i.e. the medical care center. A completely new emergency room will be built and the hospital will finally have its own helipad. The majority of the investments should be completed by 2027. The renovation of the main building will take a little longer.
The hospital, which cares for 50,000 people in the Schluchsee area, was due to be closed years ago. At the same time, negotiations were underway with facilities in neighboring Saxony that were waiting for patients from the Czech Republic. But the plan failed due to lack of funding.

Děčín acquires electric buses

Public transport in Děčín will change in the next few years. This will be achieved by purchasing new electric buses for the city lines. The city has already started a bidding process to purchase 20 electric buses. The first ten buses are expected to be delivered next year. The city will only pay a fraction of the price. The majority will be covered by subsidies from the European Union.
Děčín has been testing electric buses from various manufacturers for three years now. The decisive factor was whether the buses could also handle the mountainous terrain of the Elbe city. The result was positive. The transport company is only expecting one additional quick charge during the day.
Which company ultimately supplies the buses depends solely on the lowest price bid. The city also demands a guarantee for the batteries for the full 12-year lifespan.
In order to reduce emissions, Děčín has already purchased 21 natural gas-powered buses, whose operating costs rose sharply following the price increases after Corona and Russia's war against Ukraine. Děčín also has diesel buses in its fleet.

Unemployment highest in Northern Bohemia

Ústí nL Unemployment in the Ústí region remains the highest in the Czech Republic. In March, the employment offices reported an unemployment rate of six percent. That was two percentage points higher than the national average. However, the rate remained unchanged from February. 33,643 people were registered as unemployed compared to almost 11,000 vacancies.

The affair surrounding Bystron and the Czech newspaper Deník N

AfD politician Petr Bystron has been in the headlines for almost three weeks. He is said to have accepted money from the Russian propaganda portal Voice of Europe. Bystron denies this and the party executive of the Alternative for Germany has expressed its trust in him. But the longer the affair lasts and the more details and new findings become known, the more the politician becomes a burden for the AfD. After all, he is second on the list of candidates for the European elections in June. The name of the Czech newspaper Deník N is always mentioned in connection with Bystron. It was at the beginning and first made the allegations public.

This is no coincidence. After all, Bystron is a politician with Czech roots. Born in Olomouc in 1972, his family emigrated to Germany at the end of the 1980s. For several years now, he has had a meteoric rise in the AfD. Nevertheless, Czech media continue to write the politician's name in Czech. That means Petr remains Petr, but his surname is Bystroˇň, with a soft N at the end. His origins explain the great interest of the media in the Czech Republic in him. However, Czech media have very good sources, especially when it comes to researching Russian influence. Long before Russia's attack on Ukraine, the Czech secret service warned of the threat from Russia and its growing influence not only in the Czech Republic, but also in other parts of Europe. Czech journalists are also among the most active in Europe, researching Russian influence in networks with colleagues from other EU countries. It was no coincidence that a Europe-wide network designed to investigate Russian fake news was headed by a Czech journalist years ago.

Added to this is the long-standing investigative tradition and the growing media landscape in the Czech Republic, which has even grown in the last ten years. Deník N is the best example of this. The daily newspaper was founded when newspapers were closing elsewhere. It originated in Slovakia, where it quickly found readers and subscribers. It was so successful that after years it founded a branch in the Czech Republic. This is what has now set the Bystron affair in motion.

The production of this newsletter is co-financed by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.

(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)

The Elbe/Labe Euroregion manages a small project fund filled with EU funds to support German-Czech projects. At today's meeting of the Local Steering Committee, eight project applications with a total funding volume of EUR 69,236.80 were approved.

Česká Kamenice has an astronomical clock again

No visit to Prague is complete without a visit to the famous astronomical clock on the Old Town Square. Every hour on the hour, a huge crowd of people gathers to watch the spectacle of the apostles. A similar crowd formed on Easter Sunday in Česká Kamenice on Nerudova Street, which connects the main square with the pilgrimage church of the Virgin Mary. An astronomical clock was put into operation there. The 12 apostles can also be seen here. Two bell ringers, a skeleton and a knight complete the ensemble.

The astronomical clock was once built by a clockmaker to boost his business. But after 1945 he lost his business. What became of the clock is not known. But the place where the clock was once installed was still visible. The house on Nerudova has since been renovated and last year the town decided to install an astronomical clock again. Almost half of the money was raised through a fundraiser. The figures were made by the glass school in neighboring Kamenický Šenov.

Construction starts on the Eger cycle path

People have been talking about it for over ten years. The cycle path along the Ohře river, which has its source in Bavaria and is called the Eger there, and flows into the Elbe near Litoměřice. It is already signposted and quite a few people are already using it for cycling tours. But so far it has led along roads or forest and field paths. Some of the roads are very busy, and the forest and field paths are not always of a quality suitable for bicycles. Now the path is to have its own, mostly asphalted route. The Ústí District, as the developer, is already looking for companies to build the first sections. The first section is 3.8 kilometers long and is located between the towns of Litoměřice and Libochovice. The second section is five kilometers long and covers the stretch between Žatec and Kadaň. A total of 20 sections of cycle path are being built between the Ohře estuary and the border with the Karlovy Vary District.

German-language tours at Ústí Zoo

The zoo in Ústí nad Labem is particularly worthwhile right now. You have the unique opportunity to observe four cheetah cubs. The quadruplets are no longer very small, but at just over seven months old they are still very playful. Along with two others, they are the only cheetah cubs in Europe this year.

It is now possible to combine a visit to the zoo with an expert guided tour, even in German. The German volunteer Amelie Konzelmann has been working at the zoo since the autumn. She was introduced to the zoo by the Paritätische in Dresden, which has been active in German-Czech volunteer exchanges for years. Amelie Konzelmann did not acquire her knowledge of the zoo animals in Ústí, but came to the city on the Elbe with prior knowledge. The tours start this weekend at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Historical tours or night tours are also possible. Advance registration is required. All information, including contact details, can be found on the German version of the zoo's website. Tickets for the tour are available at the ticket office. Konzelmann also offers exciting educational programs for school classes on various topics such as "The food chain," "Behavioral biology" or "Illegal animal trade." They are designed for different age groups. More information can also be found on the website .

Day without haste

Take it easy for a day. The Czech Republic allows itself this once a year. On Wednesday, the day came. Everyone in the Czech Republic was called upon to slow down. This day was initiated by the Czech Insurance Association. The reason was the number of road deaths, which are often caused by excessive speed or inattentiveness resulting from haste. The day is therefore intended to remind people to stick to the speed limits on the roads and to drive stress-free.

But the day of no rush was not only about traffic. In Opava, the semi-final cup match between hosts Opava and favorites Sparta Prague began a few minutes later to mark the day. Theater performances also started later. Even the puppet show of the famous astronomical clock at Prague City Hall was stopped for a few minutes at 10 a.m. Instead, death rang the bell 138 times - once for every victim who died in traffic last year due to excessive speed.

The production of this newsletter is co-financed by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.

(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)

The Czech Republic celebrates Easter with a giant Easter egg

Easter is not only just around the corner, but in Jablonné v Podještědí, Czech Republic, it is a huge Easter egg in the middle of the main square. Only six kilometers from the border with Saxony, it has become a tourist attraction in recent days. Photos with the egg are eagerly shared on social networks. “The egg was made by eager craftsmen in the Heřmanice district in 80 hours of after-work work,” says Mayor Jiří Rýdl. It is around three meters high and is probably the largest egg around. It consists of a steel wire mesh through which willow branches and colored fabric panels have been woven. “We had already set it up last year, but only as a pure wire mesh. So the decorated Easter egg is a first,” the mayor continued. It can still be admired at least until Easter Monday. “We will definitely not take it down again on Tuesday, but will leave it there for a few days after Easter,” says Rýdl, given the great interest.
The Easter egg also has a tradition that is still alive today in the Czech Republic. It is considered a symbol of fertility. Colorfully decorated in many variations, it was traditionally presented on Easter Monday by women to men as they moved from house to house.

Railway lines are coming back to life

The tourist railway lines start the new season in the neighboring country on Good Friday. This also applies to train routes that are closed during the rest of the year. This applies, for example, to the popularly known Goat Railway from Děčín to Telnice, the Opárno Express from Litoměřice to Chotiměř in the Bohemian Central Mountains or the route from Ústí-Střekov to Zubrnice, which is also known as a museum village. The trains run on weekends and public holidays and the Elbe-Labe ticket is valid. Historic trains are used on most routes. The Elbe-Labe ticket is also valid on the tourist boat lines T91 to T93 on the Elbe from Ústí to Litoměřice or Hřensko. Timetables and other routes for the lines marked with a “T” can be found on the Ústí district website . Although the site is only in Czech, it is possible to navigate on the left via " Železniční linky " (rail lines) and " Lodní linky a přívozy " (ship lines and ferries).

Easter riding in Mikulášovice

On Easter Sunday the Easter riders are also out and about among our Czech neighbors. The custom, which has been practiced again in Mikulášovice for several years, is originally a tradition of the German minority that still lives there. The procession with the horses starts immediately after Holy Mass, which begins at 10 a.m. in the Church of St. Nicholas.

NGOs criticize housing situation in Prague

Several Czech non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have published the results of a study that rates the housing situation in Prague as the worst in Europe. Nowhere else is accommodation as unaffordable as in the Czech capital, the study says. The NGOs are calling for municipal housing construction, which currently does not exist in Prague, as well as the regulation of rents.

The results of the study, which follows a comparable study in 2018, correspond to the assessment of economist Martin Červinka in the daily newspaper Hospodářské noviny. He points to the increasing purchase prices for private living space and the limited supply, which is further increasing prices. Housing construction had also come to a standstill in the Czech Republic due to skyrocketing construction prices. In addition, the Czech central bank had raised key interest rates significantly more than the European Central Bank, which increased costs for home buyers and also dampened the provision of new living space. The central bank has now made its first interest rate cut. But housing construction has not yet started again. Rents also remain at a high level.

Červinka points to data from the statistics office that Prague has grown by 100,000 residents in the last two years. Cell phone data suggests the number of residents is even higher than the official 1.38 million. The main reason behind this is the influx of Ukrainian refugees in recent years. At the same time, Červinka also viewed the situation positively. It is remarkable how the housing market has accommodated the influx of so many people in such a short time.

The creation of this newsletter is co-financed by tax revenue based on the budget approved by the Saxon state parliament.

(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)

With our support, the Bohemian Switzerland National Park was able to add German subtitles to its video about the situation on the Gabrielensteig and the Edmundsklamm.

(This is an automatic translation by Google Translator.)