"No one has made up the supply's several-month delay that was the only reason [for us] to abrogate the contract," ministry spokesman Andrej Cirtek said. Werner Neubauer, an Austrian lower house deputy for the far-right Freedom Expert commissions set up for Czech APCs bid ...
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Czech press survey ... Party (FPOe), said earlier today that the abrogation by the Czech government of its contract with the Steyr company for the supply of Pandur II APCs might have been linked to the Czech-Austrian dispute over Temelin, a nuclear power plant situated in south Bohemia and challenged as unsafe by Austrian activists and certain politicians. Referring to reliable sources, Neubauer said the Czech government has cancelled the APC order in order to force the Austrian government into concessions concerning Temelin. The APCs are produced by the Austrian company Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeuge (SSF), owner by U.S.
concern General Dynamics. Neubauer has called on the Austrian government to officially react to his statement. He asked the government whether it is ready to push for the Melk agreement's implementation and to sue the Czech Republic, or whether it would give this up within the two countries' "pitting their strength against each other" and within the "capital-related game." In the Melk agreement that the two countries' prime ministers signed in Melk, Lower Austria, in 2000, the Czechs pledged to upgrade and monitor Temelin's safety in exchange for Austria not blocking their EU accession process. Certain circles in Austria insist that Prague has not observed the agreement, which Prague has resolutely dismissed. Late last year, the Czech government abrogated the APC contract with Steyr worth about 20 billion crowns, citing Steyr's failure to fulfil its commitments. Last week Czech PM Mirek Topolanek said that Prague would start further negotiations with Steyr. If the two parties fail to reach agreement by March 5, a new tender will probably be put up, Topolanek said. ($1=17.370 crowns)
(Ceske Noviny)
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