New Integration Course Requirement

There's now a new requirement in Czechland for foreigners who have been issued long-term residence permits, since 1 January 2021, to complete a four-hour integration course.  

The course covers the rights and obligations that come with residency here as well as Czech culture and values.  The class is conducted in Czech, with interpretation into English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Mongolian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian or Vietnamese.  There's no exam but participants receive a certificate when they complete the entire course.  It costs 1500 Kč ($70) and is available at 18 centres across the country.  You have up to one year from receiving your residency permit to complete the course.  The fine for not completing it in time is up to 10.000 Kč ($467).

This is only for third-country nationals as EU citizens are exempt.  It's not required if you are under 15 or over 61 years of age.  Those here on study or investment visas are also exempt.

Aside from this, the education minister has submitted draft legislation that will increase the Czech language requirement for permanent residency from A1 to A2.  When I received my permanent residency back in 2015 I only had to prove A1 level Czech.  This isn't official yet but I think it's for sure coming as there's been talk of raising the level of Czech required for at least the past eight years.  I don't know if they will raise it this year with COVID-19 but for sure by next year.

I was surprised to find out that Czechland and France are the only two EU countries that only require A1 for permanent residency.  I would have thought that the level of language proficiency would have been more unified across Europe but each has its own requirements.

In Czechland, A2 will be required for permanent residency while B1 is required for citizenship.

Germany requires B1 level for either permanent residency or citizenship.

Austria requires B1 for permanent residency and B2 for citizenship.  This means that for Austrian citizenship you need to speak better German than a German citizen.  Albeit Austrian German.

France requires A1 for permanent residency and B1 for citizenship.

Poland requires B1 for both permanent residency and citizenship.

I don't know about permanent residency but Italy requires B1 for citizenship.  The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain only require A2 for citizenship in Dutch, Portuguese, or Spanish respectively.  Denmark requires B2 for citizenship.

For countries with multiple official langues the rules seem to vary more.  For citizenship in Finland, B1 is required but it can be in either Finnish or Swedish since both are official languages.

Belgium has three official languages so for citizenship you only have to prove A2 in either French, Dutch, or German.

Luxembourg has three official languages - French, German, and Luxembourgish.  But if you want citizenship than only Luxembourgish counts.  You need A2 level speaking and B1 level listening.

Switzerland has four official languages - German, French, Italian, and Romansh.  For permanent residency you need A1 writing and A2 speaking in any one of the four languages.  For citizenship, A2 writing and B1 speaking are required.

I'm still waiting to find out when I get to take my B1 Czech exam.

2020 Global Peace Index

The 2020 Global Peace Index results are in.  This is the 14th year of the index ranking peacefulness in 163 countries.  This year's index included analysis COVID-19's impact on peace.

This report also looked at the trends of civil unrest over the past ten years.  I was surprised the Europe had the largest number of protests, riots and strikes with almost 1.600 events between 2011 and 2018.  The civil unrest events in Europe were nonviolent 65% of the time.

Overall, Europe maintains its status as the most world's most peaceful region, with 13 of the 20 most peaceful countries.  The Middle East and North Africa was the least peaceful region.

No surprise that Iceland is the world's most peaceful country again since it's been number 1 since 2008.

1. Iceland
2. New Zealand
3. Portugal
4. Austria
5. Denmark
6. Canada
7. Singapore
8. Czechland
9. Japan
10. Switzerland

It's interesting that except for Iceland, 9 of the 10 most peaceful countries all have some of the most powerful passports.

The USA is ranked #122, behind Azerbaijan and ahead of Burkina Faso.

Afghanistan is still the world's least peaceful country, just behind Syria.

21 January 2021

In just a little bit it will be...

The 21st second...of the 21st minute...of the 21st hour...of the 21st day...of the 21st year...of the 21st century.

The next time this happens is on the 22nd...in 101 years.

Charter 77

A couple of weeks ago, on 6 January, was the 44th anniversary of Charta 77 (Charter 77).  Following the arrest and sentencing of members of the Plastic People of the Universe, a group of artists, writers and intellectuals produced a document that was signed by +240 people.  

Charter 77 criticised the government for failing to provide for human rights provisions which the Czechoslovak government had signed up to including the country's constitution, the Helsinki Accords and UN covenants.   

Charter 77 emphasised that it was an informal open association of people because if it was an organisation for political activity then it would have been against the law as organised opposition was illegal in Czechoslovakia.  

On 6 January, Václav Havel, Ludvík Vaculík, and Pavel Landovský were detained for trying to deliver the charter to the Federal Assembly.  The original document was confiscated by the authorities.  However, it had been smuggled out of the country and on 7 January it was published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Le Monde, Corriere della Sera, the Times of London and the New York Times.  It was also broadcast to the country by Radio Free Europe.

The communists considered distributing the document as a political crime.  People who had signed the charter were targeted by the StB, the Czechoslovak secret police.  Many were fired from their jobs, their children were not allowed to attend university, some had their drivers' licenses suspended, while others were detained, put on trial and imprisoned.

The government never published the Charter 77 text but described it as anti-state propaganda written by traitors and imperialist agents.  On 28 January the government released its "anti-charter" arguing the government's support of human rights.  The anti-charter was endorsed by the executive committees of the Czechoslovak Writers' Union, Union of Visual Artists, the Composers' Union, the Union of Dramatic Artists, the Federal Union of Architects.  The communists required artists to sign up to the anti-charter, without ever showing them the Charter 77.  Many artists including singer Karel Gott and actor Jan Werich later claimed that they had no idea of what they were signing to, just that they were required to sign it.

People continued to sign Charter 77 and by the Velvet Revolution there were almost 2000 signatures.  The first post communist Czechoslovak parliament were among the original signers including the new president Václav Havel and foreign minister Jiří Dienstbier.   

Here are a few relatively short videos I found on YouTube about Charter 77 and the government's anti-charter.

©Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

©Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

©Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

©Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

The Plastic People of the Universe

The Plastic People of the Universe was an underground rock band formed in Prague in 1968 just after the invasion.  The band was inspired by Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground.  

Following the invasion, the overthrow of Alexander Dubček and the end of the Prague Spring, Czechoslovakia instituted "normalisation" which was a return to hard-line communism.  As such, psychedelic rock music wasn't high on the list of communist values so the government revoked the band's license to perform in 1970.  Since they weren't able to perform openly, they basically established an entire underground cultural movement during the 1970s.  I imagine it was a Czechoslovak version of hippies wanting to change the world just as there were similar movements across the world.

In 1976, the band performed at a festival which resulted in their arrest and conviction for the "organised disturbance of the peace".  The band members, and others, were given prison sentences ranging from 8 to 18 months.  The band had no political association but since they were prosecuted by the communist regime it started a number of protests.  Václav Havel and others wrote Charter 77 in response to the arrests and the trial ended up becoming a milestone for human rights against the government.

The band broke up in 1988 however they reunited in 1997 in honour of the 20th anniversary of Charter 77.  Since then they have continued to perform around the world.

Here's a short video that I found on YouTube that shows part of an interview with one of the band's members.

©Radio Free Europe

Bankovní Identita

Bankovní Identita is a new banking identification system that is getting rolled out in Q1 of this year.   

The system will allow you to use your bank's electronic banking security methods to verify your identity.  Just use your Internet banking login details and you will be able to access more than 125 services on-line.

The system will allow people to electronically sign documents and automatically pre-fill forms which will reduce the amount of time people need to actually visit government offices.

People will be able to file taxes, deal with driver's licenses and vehicle registrations, get an extract from the criminal registry and deal with health insurance companies.  The census will be online and available in March.  I swear that anything that helps reduce Czech bureaucracy is a good and welcome thing.  

The Czech Banking Association has a commercial about it that I found on YouTube.  The commercial is a bit abstract in my opinion. 

©Česká bankovní asociace

2021 Passport Power

The new passport rankings are in and Japan now has the world's most powerful passport.  A Japanese passport allows a citizen to travel to 191 countries either visa-free or visa on arrival.  Only 35 destinations require a visa or an e-visa.

Here are the top ten most powerful passports for travel.

1. Japan
2. Singapore
3. Germany, South Korea
4. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain
5. Austria, Denmark
6. France, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden
7. Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, UK, USA
8. Australia, Czech Republic, Greece, Malta
9. Canada
10. Hungary

Last year my American passport was ranked 8th and now it's moved up to 7th place. A U.S. passport will get you in to 185 countries with 41 countries requiring a visa.

A Czech passport allows entry to 184 countries with 42 countries requiring a visa.  The two passports are pretty close but the mix of countries is a bit different.

An American passport gets you in to Australia, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, and Mongolia whereas Czechs must get a visa.  Americans are also eligible for the 3-year visa for Russia which is not available to Czechs.

A Czech passport allows for entry to Iran, Myanmar, and Turkey which Americans must get a visa in order to visit.

One important thing to note is that temporary travel restrictions use to COVID-19 aren't considered which is a good thing because otherwise a U.S. passport would come in around 71st place.

The world's weakest passport is Afghanistan.  This passport allows for travel to only 26 countries without a visa.

Now we just need to get past COVID-19 so that I can take my passport out for a spin.  As well as, work on getting Czech citizenship so that I can have a Czech passport too.

Update: 2022 passport power rankings.
Update: 2023 passport power rankings.

Czech Unemployment Rises

Czechland has had very low unemployment and in January 2019 the unemployment rate was 1,9%.  This was the first time ever that an EU country was under 2%. 

Due to COVID-19 it was pretty certain that the unemployment rate would increase.  In November 2020 there was 3,8% unemployment and 4% in December.  This is the highest that it has been since the summer of 2017.

Even with the increase, Czechland still has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October 2020 for Czechland was 3,1%.  For comparison the entire EU rate was 7,6% and it was 8,5% for the Eurozone countries.

Spain had the highest unemployment at 16,2%.  I expected that Greece would have had the highest and it actually may have but the data for Greece wasn't available.

2021 Labour Code Changes

There are several changes to the Czech labour code which took effect on 1 January.

 An employee's vacation time is now determined by the number of hours worked during a week and not but the number of days worked.  This makes it fairer for employees who work part-time or work irregular shifts.  The law provides for a minimum of 4 weeks (160) hours of vacation time per year for a full-time employee.  While 4 weeks of vacation time is the minimum required under the labour code, many companies actually provide 5 weeks off in order to be competitive.

There's a new shared workplace law that allows an employer to hire two or more part-time employees to fulfil one full-time job.  The employer determines the schedule of working hours and the shared workplace has to be agreed upon will all the employees by a special written agreement.

The amount of worker's compensation benefits have been increased.  The circle of relatives eligible for survivor's benefits have also been extended.  There's now a new one-off compensation in place for non-pecuniary damage in the event of serious health damage to an employee.

Freelancers are now allowed to pay a flat tax instead of monthly contributions.  The 2021 flat tax is 5.469 Kč ($255) per month.  This includes the minimum health insurance contribution of 2.393 Kč and the  2.976 Kč minimum contribution for social security insurance.

The annual taxpayer allowance increases to 27.840 Kč ($1,297).  In 2022 it will increase to 30.840 Kč ($1,437).

The government has done away with the super-gross salary.  Previously, a person's tax base included the social and health insurance contributions made by one's employer.  

The solidarity tax has been eliminated.  This was an extra 7% on all income over 100.000 Kč ($4,660) per month.

Instead there's now a progressive income tax for people of 15% and 23%.  The 23% rate is for people whose income exceeds 48 times the average yearly salary.  For this year that's for people earning 1.701.168 Kč ($79,279).

Current COVID-19 Situation

The number of COVID-19 cases is pretty much of control here in Czechland.  Last week the country had the world's worst numbers it's not surprising that the current state of emergency, which was supposed to end on 10 January, has now been extended to 22 January.

• There's still a curfew from 9 pm to 5 am.  
• Only up to 2 people can meet up in public.
• Shops are closed.  
• Grocery stores must limit the number of people inside at a time and they are closed on Sundays.
• Restaurants are all still closed but take away windows can be open until 9 pm.  
• Public consumption of alcohol is prohibited.
• Hotels are closed.
• On 4 January, first and second graders returned to school.  Other grades are still online.

There are plenty of exceptions though.  Gas stations, pharmacies, pet stores, opticians, dry cleaners, florists, locksmiths, hardware and home goods stores all remain open.

The South Moravian region is now having medical high school students who are in the final year to help out in healthcare facilities.   

From 15 January everyone over 80 can register for the vaccine.  Everyone else in the country can register from 1 February.  A point system based on age, health status, and employment will determine when you get the vaccine.

In February I'm also supposed to be able to register for my new date to take the language and citizenship test since my December test was cancelled.

I guess at this point it's a coin toss which date I'll get first, for my language test or for my COVID-19 vaccine.  We'll see.

Update: The Finance Ministry will now waive income tax for all of the students who are called up to work in hospitals and social facilities.