A think tank report shows that the proposed fees for administering second-pillar pension funds are out of line with those for similar programs in other countries such as Sweden. The report’s authors also favor anonymity in the accounts to protect the clients. Finding the right structure for the funds, though, is the most important issue.

Public Affairs (VV) remains an unreliable structure whose behavior is impossible to predict, the lengthy internal crisis within the Civic Democrats (ODS) has intensified, and the president has his own agenda, aimed at weakening the prime minister and ensuring his own political staying power. Against this backdrop, anything could be a pretext for another Cabinet war, writes commentator Petr Nováček.

Why hasn’t Prime Minister Petr Nečas (Civic Democrats – ODS) spoken to Minister for Regional Development Kamil Jankovský? For had he considered or at least noted what the media are reporting, the government wouldn’t have spent so much time and energy defending the proposal to hike the value-added tax in order to fund the planned overhaul of the country’s pension system.

If President Václav Klaus doesn’t sign the government proposal for pension reform, it won’t be a tragedy, as the center-right coalition’ concept is ill-prepared, writes economist Vladimír Pikora. And if the opposition forms the next government, it will probably make changes, resulting in a never-ending and expensive reform of pension reform.