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Spain will lift a curb on workers from the European Union's former communist states on May 1, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Thursday. The only countries of the EU fifteen that have their labour markets open so far are Britain, Ireland, and Sweden. In a telephone call to his Spanish counterpart on Thursday, Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda welcomed the decision.

Finland and Portugal are also expected to open their doors to labourers when a two-year transition period ends in May. Germany, Austria, and France will most likely uphold their restrictions on foreign workers.

The lower house of the Czech Parliament has rejected a proposal to declare Good Friday a state holiday. The proposal was put forward by the Senate, which also proposed to scrap International Women's Day from the list of "significant holidays".

Police say they have arrested seven people on suspicion of bribery; two of them Transport Ministry officials. They are believed to have tried to influence state decision-making at the ministries of transport and agriculture. Under operation Anthropoid, the suspects were monitored by the organised crime department for five months. No charges have been brought against them so far.

The free movement of labour is much more important than many other freedoms within the EU, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities Vladimir Spidla said on Thursday. Mr Spidla was speaking at a conference hosted by the permanent representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union in Brussels. Mr Spidla, a former Czech prime minister, said the EU was on the right track to have all of its labour markets open by 2011.

Using the example of the Czech Republic, where the average hourly wage is over a third higher than in neighbouring Slovakia, Mr Spidla tried to refute claims that an open labour market will lead to an influx of cheap labour. The number of workers from Slovakia seeking better paid jobs in the Czech Republic has remained at a constant 60,000, Mr Spidla argued.

The ruling Social Democrats have urged Justice Minister Pavel Nemec to correct a serious lapse in the proposed penal code which would make it difficult to fight large-scale fraud. The proposed bill lacks an article on abuse of information in business relations which was removed at the request of an opposition deputy. The Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has asked the justice minister to explain why he had allowed this to happen and urged him to find a way of correcting the lapse as soon as possible. Although a new penal code is badly needed the Social Democrats are uncertain whether to support it in its current form.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs the unemployment rate in the Czech Republic has dropped to 9.1 percent in February from 9.2 percent in the first month of the year. The ministry's news release attributes the drop to the high number of jobless workers on government re-training programmes. The rate of unemployment continues to vary greatly across the country with a 2.6 percent unemployment rate in the Czech capital Prague and an unemployment rate of over 20 percent in the eastern parts of the country.

The Czech Environment Minister Libor Ambrozek will protest in Brussels against proposed changes in EU directives which he fears could lead to poorer EU countries being used as waste dumping grounds by their richer neighbours. Czech environmental inspectors estimate that around 15,000 tonnes of waste has been shipped from Germany and dumped in the Czech Republic over the last few weeks. EU environment ministers are due to have a general discussion about recycling of waste and the proposed waste directive at a meeting on Thursday.

A special anti-corruption police squad will continue to investigate cases relating to senior public officials, judges and state attorneys. An attempt to relegate some of the less serious cases to local police officers encountered opposition from the Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan. Mr. Bublan said that although he was not strictly against the idea, it would first be necessary to clearly specify what kind of cases were considered of minor importance.

Czech ski jumper Jakub Janda placed eighth at the World Cup ski jump event in Finland on Tuesday. The only other Czech to make it to the second round was Borek Sedlak who came in 30th. The victory went to Andreas Kuttel from Switzerland who defended his lead in the first round with a 129 metres jump.

A Czech court on Tuesday fined two former football referees 70,000 koruna (around 2,400 euros) for their part in trying to fix the result of a first division league game in November 2003. Lubomir Pucek, a former referee and the current sporting manager of first division Czech football club Slavia Prague, and Jiri Vodicka were sentenced by a court in Havirov, in the east of the Czech Republic. Vodicka also received a two-year ban from refereeing any games. Both men have said they will appeal the verdict.