Okno Group - Environmental policy briefs

Czech Republic: Selected environmental policy briefs

Reprinted from Environment & Health Online

Baltic States

Bulgaria

Czech Rep.

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The policy briefs reprinted in these pages are drawn from past issues of Okno Group's E&H Online Environment Report. The briefs have been selected for broader interest and appear here with a delay after original publication.

July 1998

Czech elections bring new government, environment minister

June elections in the Czech Republic did not produce a parliament with a majority party or a clear potential coalition. After serious negotiations, the two largest parties in the parliament -- the center-left Social Democrats (CSSD) who won a plurality, and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) which had held power until late last year -- agreed to split power. Social Democrat leader Milos Zeman and his arch-rival Vaclav Klaus of the center-right ODS agreed that the CSSD would form a minority government with Mr. Zeman as premier, while Mr. Klaus would become parliament speaker. When Mr. Zeman announced his cabinet on 18 July, all but one of the ministers was affiliated with the CSSD. (Unlike "social democrat" parties in other transition countries, the CSSD is not a remnant of the old communist party but rather has roots as a left-liberal party from before the second World War.)

The new environment minister, Milos Kuzvart, is a 38-year-old geologist who has been active in environmental affairs in and out of government since 1989. Mr. Kuzvart says that he will continue many of the priorities of the outgoing minister, Martin Bursik; he supports the outgoing government's decision to review the feasibility of the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia, and will continue to press for natural resource protection, the use of economic tools in environmental regulation, and for a larger public presence for the ministry.

According to the Czech news agency, Mr. Kuzvart said his first task would be the completion and passage of a major new set of nature protection guidelines; following that, he intends to push for an environmentally-focused transformation of Czech industry, and for a system of subsidies to fund protected lands and national parks.

Mr. Kuzvart had been a strong critic of the environmental policies of the previous ODS government (which resigned in late 1997); in particular, he argued that the government had had no environmental component in its natural resources, energy, transport, or nuclear policies. The new minister is also critical of the unplanned development of wealthy suburbs outside major cities.

Milos Kuzvart studied geology and geochemistry at Prague's Charles University; he also did his postgraduate work there. He worked in the environment ministry for several years until 1994, participating in a number of UN and US EPA-sponsored programs on environmental protection and policy. Mr. Kuzvart joined the CSSD in 1995 and became head of its ecological commission that same year; he has been the CSSD's shadow environment minister while in opposition.

Outgoing minister Martin Bursik told journalists in mid-July that he considered his biggest victory the fact that the environment ministry has "stopped cowering in the corner" and is taken seriously even in issue areas outside its traditional realm, such as energy and transport policy. Mr. Bursik, who is not a party member, helped write the environmental program of the Christian Democrats and said he intends to continue working with that party. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

June 1998

Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik submitted a package of draft measures to the cabinet on 17 June which would close what the ministry sees as loopholes in current environmental law. Among the acts that would be changed are laws on the protection of nature and wilderness; Mr. Bursik also wants to designate new protected areas. The minister said problems existed in the rules regulating mining, hunting, and construction projects in undeveloped areas; the central role of the environment ministry in environmental protection has not been respected, he argued. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

May 1998

Czechs reassess environmental progress; Bursik vows to shut polluters

The Czech government will not grant exceptions to firms which do not meet air pollution standards when new rules come into force at the end of the year, Environment Minister Martin Bursik told Czech TV on 10 May. Mr. Bursik said that all companies have had seven years to bring themselves into compliance, and those that do not meet standards at the beginning of next year will be closed down. Environmental experts said that of some 2,700 heavy polluters, 36 are likely to fail to meet the new standards; over 200 of the 27,000 moderate polluters will probably fall short. Mr. Bursik said that smaller state-owned facilities, such as schools and hospitals, were a problem and the government was offering aid to help them comply with the new rules.

In addition, an internal Environment Ministry report, written by both ministry staff and outside experts this spring, indicates that the Czech environment has not improved as much over the last several years as had been claimed. The experts found that there has been no basic improvement in environmental protection, and that the government still does not have a comprehensive plan to improve the situation. Such an assessment is not so difficult for the current caretaker government, since the criticism falls mostly on the previous conservative government of Vaclav Klaus. The authors of the report point to the strength of business lobbies and interest groups as one of the main obstacles to effective environmental protection. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

Czech customs and environmental officials are calling for restrictions on the import of household and other wastes. Officials say that citizens of other European countries with high disposal fees, especially Germany, have been crossing the border with bags of trash to dump on the Czech side. Customs officials want powers to fine covert waste carriers similar to those their German counterparts have. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

April 1998

Czechs weigh cost of meeting EU enviro standards

Czech environment ministry officials placed their country's expenses for harmonizing with EU environmental regulations at Kc500 billion ($15 billion). Officials expect to be able only to bring basic environmental laws up to EU norms by their target membership date of 2004. Most difficult will be changes to the water law, expected to account for a fifth of the total expense; air pollution and solid waste are other costly areas, while laws on chemicals and nature protection already meet EU standards, the government says. Officials admit that changing the pollution limits set in law will be minor compared to setting up institutions and procedures for their enforcement. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

With encouragement from Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik, the State Fund for the Environment will use some of its funds to encourage the construction of alternative power plants, including water- and wind-powered electric plants. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

March 1998

Czech environment minister replaced; some policy shifts seen

Jiri Skalicky, environment minister and deputy prime minister in the caretaker government of Prime Minister Josef Tosovsky, tendered his resignation on 16 February. Mr. Skalicky led the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) party, which had been part of the governing coalition with former premier Vaclav Klaus' Civic Democratic Party but had turned into a rival to Mr. Klaus and his party in the declining days of that government. He resigned his current post, and the party leadership, in the wake of a scandal over foreign contributions to his party.

To replace Mr. Skalicky, premier Tosovsky named Martin Bursik, an independent who is currently head of the Prague city council's environment committee. Trained in natural resources at Prague's Charles University, Mr. Bursik worked as a hydrologist for six years before being elected to parliament in 1990 on the Civic Forum ticket; he later won election to the Prague city assembly. He has been outspoken in prodding the city administration to encourage citizen involvement in environmental protection and in criticizing moves, such as raising mass transit fees, that he argues end up causing more pollution. After he swore in Mr. Bursik on 27 February, Czech President Vaclav Havel said he was pleased with the appointment because Mr. Bursik's environmental priorities were very close to his own. One of Mr. Bursik's early official acts was to withdraw a draft government policy on natural resource extraction and export; he argued that the low prices for minerals and labor in the Czech Republic would encourage excessive mining and inadequate environmental protection. The Environment Ministry will be re-drafting the proposal. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

New water pollution, chemical regulation bills in Czech Republic

Two important new measures are becoming law soon in the Czech Republic: one regulating industrial discharges in waste water and the other governing the environmental impact of chemicals. The waste water discharge law was passed by the Senate on 4 March and will take effect at the beginning of 1999. The law is designed to push companies and local government to build waste water treatment plants by raising penalties for infractions and offering incentives to construct treatment plants. The new law would more than double the fines faced by enterprises which discharge waste water exceeding standards; current fines are low enough, officials say, that many firms simply build fines into costs and have no incentive to reduce pollution. The new higher fines, which will be phased in over three years, will be balanced by lower fees to polluters who are constructing a treatment facility. The law also increases the number of substances in waste water subject to limits. Officials say that while most cities have treatment plants, three sizable cities do not; they also observe that current regulation of industrial waste water are lax. Government regulations, which do not require parliamentary approval, that complement the new law will lower the limits on discharge substances.

Four years in the making, a new law regulating chemical substances should come into effect on 1 July. The law is the first to explicitly regulate chemicals for their health and environmental effects. Responsibility for regulating chemicals is moved from the Health Ministry to the Environment Ministry under the law; the Environment Ministry will grant approvals for trade in dangerous chemicals, be able to require firms to identify the chemicals they use and prepare risk assessments, and set up an information system on toxic substances. The bill was the subject of much negotiation within the government, as the ministries of Health, Environment and Trade battled with one another over authority and responsibility (what outgoing deputy environment minister Vladislav Bizek referred to as the "Bermuda Triangle"). The bill is also not without critics in the domestic chemical industry, who feel the law will over-regulate the sector. The government is preparing implementing regulations to be issued when the law is formally approved. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

February 1998

Poll: Czechs worry about country's environment

According to a poll conducted by the IVVM agency in December, a large proportion of Czechs may be satisfied with the quality of the environment where they live, but very few are happy with the environmental state of the nation. Forty three percent said they were satisfied with local conditions, though that varied by region: in heavily polluted northern Bohemia, only 28% said they were satisfied. Nationally, only 11% said they were satisfied with the country's overall environmental condition, while 42% said they were dissatisfied. Nearly half of all respondents thought their local governments were handling environmental matters well, but only 27% said the national Environment Ministry was doing a good job; 52% said they thought the Ministry was doing poorly. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

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Baltic States	Bulgaria	Czech Rep.	Hungary	Poland	Romania
Slovakia	Fmr. Yugoslavia	Central/East European Region		Former Soviet region
Belarus	Caucasus	Central Asia	Moldova	Russia	Ukraine


July 1998	Czech elections bring new government, environment minister June elections in the Czech Republic did not produce a parliament with a majority party or a clear potential coalition. After serious negotiations, the two largest parties in the parliament -- the center-left Social Democrats (CSSD) who won a plurality, and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) which had held power until late last year -- agreed to split power. Social Democrat leader Milos Zeman and his arch-rival Vaclav Klaus of the center-right ODS agreed that the CSSD would form a minority government with Mr. Zeman as premier, while Mr. Klaus would become parliament speaker. When Mr. Zeman announced his cabinet on 18 July, all but one of the ministers was affiliated with the CSSD. (Unlike "social democrat" parties in other transition countries, the CSSD is not a remnant of the old communist party but rather has roots as a left-liberal party from before the second World War.) The new environment minister, Milos Kuzvart, is a 38-year-old geologist who has been active in environmental affairs in and out of government since 1989. Mr. Kuzvart says that he will continue many of the priorities of the outgoing minister, Martin Bursik; he supports the outgoing government's decision to review the feasibility of the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia, and will continue to press for natural resource protection, the use of economic tools in environmental regulation, and for a larger public presence for the ministry. According to the Czech news agency, Mr. Kuzvart said his first task would be the completion and passage of a major new set of nature protection guidelines; following that, he intends to push for an environmentally-focused transformation of Czech industry, and for a system of subsidies to fund protected lands and national parks. Mr. Kuzvart had been a strong critic of the environmental policies of the previous ODS government (which resigned in late 1997); in particular, he argued that the government had had no environmental component in its natural resources, energy, transport, or nuclear policies. The new minister is also critical of the unplanned development of wealthy suburbs outside major cities. Milos Kuzvart studied geology and geochemistry at Prague's Charles University; he also did his postgraduate work there. He worked in the environment ministry for several years until 1994, participating in a number of UN and US EPA-sponsored programs on environmental protection and policy. Mr. Kuzvart joined the CSSD in 1995 and became head of its ecological commission that same year; he has been the CSSD's shadow environment minister while in opposition. Outgoing minister Martin Bursik told journalists in mid-July that he considered his biggest victory the fact that the environment ministry has "stopped cowering in the corner" and is taken seriously even in issue areas outside its traditional realm, such as energy and transport policy. Mr. Bursik, who is not a party member, helped write the environmental program of the Christian Democrats and said he intends to continue working with that party. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

June 1998	Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik submitted a package of draft measures to the cabinet on 17 June which would close what the ministry sees as loopholes in current environmental law. Among the acts that would be changed are laws on the protection of nature and wilderness; Mr. Bursik also wants to designate new protected areas. The minister said problems existed in the rules regulating mining, hunting, and construction projects in undeveloped areas; the central role of the environment ministry in environmental protection has not been respected, he argued. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

May 1998	Czechs reassess environmental progress; Bursik vows to shut polluters The Czech government will not grant exceptions to firms which do not meet air pollution standards when new rules come into force at the end of the year, Environment Minister Martin Bursik told Czech TV on 10 May. Mr. Bursik said that all companies have had seven years to bring themselves into compliance, and those that do not meet standards at the beginning of next year will be closed down. Environmental experts said that of some 2,700 heavy polluters, 36 are likely to fail to meet the new standards; over 200 of the 27,000 moderate polluters will probably fall short. Mr. Bursik said that smaller state-owned facilities, such as schools and hospitals, were a problem and the government was offering aid to help them comply with the new rules. In addition, an internal Environment Ministry report, written by both ministry staff and outside experts this spring, indicates that the Czech environment has not improved as much over the last several years as had been claimed. The experts found that there has been no basic improvement in environmental protection, and that the government still does not have a comprehensive plan to improve the situation. Such an assessment is not so difficult for the current caretaker government, since the criticism falls mostly on the previous conservative government of Vaclav Klaus. The authors of the report point to the strength of business lobbies and interest groups as one of the main obstacles to effective environmental protection. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group. Czech customs and environmental officials are calling for restrictions on the import of household and other wastes. Officials say that citizens of other European countries with high disposal fees, especially Germany, have been crossing the border with bags of trash to dump on the Czech side. Customs officials want powers to fine covert waste carriers similar to those their German counterparts have. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

April 1998	Czechs weigh cost of meeting EU enviro standards Czech environment ministry officials placed their country's expenses for harmonizing with EU environmental regulations at Kc500 billion ($15 billion). Officials expect to be able only to bring basic environmental laws up to EU norms by their target membership date of 2004. Most difficult will be changes to the water law, expected to account for a fifth of the total expense; air pollution and solid waste are other costly areas, while laws on chemicals and nature protection already meet EU standards, the government says. Officials admit that changing the pollution limits set in law will be minor compared to setting up institutions and procedures for their enforcement. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group. With encouragement from Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik, the State Fund for the Environment will use some of its funds to encourage the construction of alternative power plants, including water- and wind-powered electric plants. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

March 1998	Czech environment minister replaced; some policy shifts seen Jiri Skalicky, environment minister and deputy prime minister in the caretaker government of Prime Minister Josef Tosovsky, tendered his resignation on 16 February. Mr. Skalicky led the Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) party, which had been part of the governing coalition with former premier Vaclav Klaus' Civic Democratic Party but had turned into a rival to Mr. Klaus and his party in the declining days of that government. He resigned his current post, and the party leadership, in the wake of a scandal over foreign contributions to his party. To replace Mr. Skalicky, premier Tosovsky named Martin Bursik, an independent who is currently head of the Prague city council's environment committee. Trained in natural resources at Prague's Charles University, Mr. Bursik worked as a hydrologist for six years before being elected to parliament in 1990 on the Civic Forum ticket; he later won election to the Prague city assembly. He has been outspoken in prodding the city administration to encourage citizen involvement in environmental protection and in criticizing moves, such as raising mass transit fees, that he argues end up causing more pollution. After he swore in Mr. Bursik on 27 February, Czech President Vaclav Havel said he was pleased with the appointment because Mr. Bursik's environmental priorities were very close to his own. One of Mr. Bursik's early official acts was to withdraw a draft government policy on natural resource extraction and export; he argued that the low prices for minerals and labor in the Czech Republic would encourage excessive mining and inadequate environmental protection. The Environment Ministry will be re-drafting the proposal. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group. New water pollution, chemical regulation bills in Czech Republic Two important new measures are becoming law soon in the Czech Republic: one regulating industrial discharges in waste water and the other governing the environmental impact of chemicals. The waste water discharge law was passed by the Senate on 4 March and will take effect at the beginning of 1999. The law is designed to push companies and local government to build waste water treatment plants by raising penalties for infractions and offering incentives to construct treatment plants. The new law would more than double the fines faced by enterprises which discharge waste water exceeding standards; current fines are low enough, officials say, that many firms simply build fines into costs and have no incentive to reduce pollution. The new higher fines, which will be phased in over three years, will be balanced by lower fees to polluters who are constructing a treatment facility. The law also increases the number of substances in waste water subject to limits. Officials say that while most cities have treatment plants, three sizable cities do not; they also observe that current regulation of industrial waste water are lax. Government regulations, which do not require parliamentary approval, that complement the new law will lower the limits on discharge substances. Four years in the making, a new law regulating chemical substances should come into effect on 1 July. The law is the first to explicitly regulate chemicals for their health and environmental effects. Responsibility for regulating chemicals is moved from the Health Ministry to the Environment Ministry under the law; the Environment Ministry will grant approvals for trade in dangerous chemicals, be able to require firms to identify the chemicals they use and prepare risk assessments, and set up an information system on toxic substances. The bill was the subject of much negotiation within the government, as the ministries of Health, Environment and Trade battled with one another over authority and responsibility (what outgoing deputy environment minister Vladislav Bizek referred to as the "Bermuda Triangle"). The bill is also not without critics in the domestic chemical industry, who feel the law will over-regulate the sector. The government is preparing implementing regulations to be issued when the law is formally approved. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.

February 1998	Poll: Czechs worry about country's environment According to a poll conducted by the IVVM agency in December, a large proportion of Czechs may be satisfied with the quality of the environment where they live, but very few are happy with the environmental state of the nation. Forty three percent said they were satisfied with local conditions, though that varied by region: in heavily polluted northern Bohemia, only 28% said they were satisfied. Nationally, only 11% said they were satisfied with the country's overall environmental condition, while 42% said they were dissatisfied. Nearly half of all respondents thought their local governments were handling environmental matters well, but only 27% said the national Environment Ministry was doing a good job; 52% said they thought the Ministry was doing poorly. Copyright ©1998 by Okno Group.