Prague fines its Paris embassy for document leak
(PRAGUE) - The Czech Republic's security vetting agency has fined the country's Paris embassy for a document leak of a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Czech Premier Mirek Topolanek.
"The embassy of the Czech Republic in France did not mark the 'reserved' degree of confidentiality as it should have done," Dusan Navratil, director of the Czech National Security Office (NBU), told AFP.
Still, Navratil said, the 77,000-koruna (2,800-euro, 3,600-dollar) sanction has an "educational" goal and is far less than the normal fine for such an error which could exceed 36,000 euros.
The office launched an inquiry after the local Reflex weekly published the transcript of an October meeting between Sarkozy and Topolanek on the handover of the European Union presidency from Paris to Prague.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg apologised to France and described the text as "misleading."
The document quoted Sarkozy as offering Topolanek leadership in eastern Europe within the planned European partnership in exchange for the helm of the new Mediterranean Union during Prague's EU presidency starting on January 1.
Both Topolanek and Czech President Vaclav Klaus have confirmed the validity of the document's content.
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