Elections to the Chamber of Deputies were held on 20 - 21 October. View the results. The first session of the Chamber of Deputies will be held on 20 November. On October 31, President Milos Zeman gave Andrej Babis/ANO, the election winner, the attempt to form a government. After coalition negotiations, A. Babis announced the intention to form a minority government (with ANO's 78  out of 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies).

Czech presidential election will be held on 12 and 13 January 2018.

From the sessions of the Senate

At ist session on 11 October, the Senate passed legally anchored rules for VAT control statment. The President signed them at the end of October.

The Senate draft amendment to the Act on Pharnaceuticals suggests postponing obligatory e-prescription of pharmaceuticals to 2020, i.e. from January 2018, it could be a voluntary decision of each medical professional whether he or she wants to prescribe medicaments electronically. The current law assumes introduction of obligatory e-prescription from January 2018. The bill will be reviewed by the Senate committees.

The government should speed up preparations for implementing the EU Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Senate's Committee for Public Administration recommended on 2 November. (Source: epravo.cz) The regulation must be incorporated into the Czech law by 25 May 2018. 

From the sessions of the Government

At its session on 11 October, the Government agreed with the intention to amend the Act on Investment Incentives to support investments with high value added, such as technology centres or centres of strategic services. The intention will be included in the Plan of Legislative Works in 2018. Nevertheless, the new government will have the final word.

On 11 October, the Government endorsed a report about securing economic interests of the Czech Republic in the area of critical superstrategic raw materials of the European Union and some other raw materials. This means the Government gave its consent to increased control over critical superstrategic raw materials plus over deposits of tantalum, zirconium, titanium, gold, uranium and lithium. The government also agreed with greater control over defence of economic, environmental and ownership interests of the state when acquiring deposits of raw materials. The Union of Miners with around 100 members said the intention is an inadequate restraining of business environment. (Source: epravo.cz) 

At its session on 11 October, the Government assigned the task to relevant ministries to draft National Investment Strategy by June 2019 and the Action Plan for Autonomous Driving by June 2018. Read also Government supported development of new technologies in automotive industry.

At its session on 23 October, the Government passed draft directive updating the list of jobs that job agencies cannot intermediate as temporary assignments. 

Earlier in September, the Government approved material intent of the new Consumer Protection Act drafted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Justice.