An upcoming change to the law surrounding the Czech environmental assessment process (EIA) could slow the development planning process and in some cases even bring projects to a halt, warns the Union of Construction Entrepreneurs (SPS). SPS had wanted to push through a combined EIA and construction permitting process but was unsuccessful. Under the new law, the EIA process will be included in a project’s zoning, planning and construction permit stages.
SPS’s legal director Pavel Novák told ČTK that provisions in the new law allow any Czech citizen to appeal a project. “Two hundred people from Ostrava could appeal the construction of a shopping center in Karlovy Vary,” he claims. Local officials and courts would then have to deal with the appeal, and construction could be postponed by months. SPS warns that this change will slow down infrastructure projects that already take 10 to 15 years to complete.
