Publication details
Nový stavební zákon a ochrana ovzduší v ČR
| Title in English | New Building Act and Ambient Air Protection in the Czech Republic |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | COFOLA 2020: Sborník příspěvků mladých právníků, doktorandů a právních vědců |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | Open access sborníku |
| Keywords | Construction Law; Environmental Law; Environment; Air Protection; Recodification; Authority Concerned; Integration; Public Interest |
| Description | Planned re-codification of public construction law will have essential impact on the level of environmental protection in the Czech Republic. The shift indicated by both the white paper approved by the Government and the draft law currently revised after undergone reflection process could be considered unimaginable. The draft law as a whole but also in its partial aspects and instruments means significant deflection from current environmental protection practice. Newly prepared Building Act could, if not changed, influence the state of the environment and the level of its protection negatively. One of the environmental components which could be affected the most by the new building act, is ambient air. Proposed legislation changes the approaches to ambient air protection dramatically and in certain aspects almost resigns from its protection. Explicitly regrettable is the effort to integrate all the administrative processes which are being realized throughout the life of a construction (from project phase to realization phase, eventually to the demolition phase) into one formal administrative procedure lead by one of the bodies of the newly soon-to-be-established state construction management. Under this “integration” falls not only EIA process and procedures regulated by the Building Act but probably also authorization procedures and IPPC procedure. Feasibility of handing over material enabling administrative decision comprising of solutions to all the questions from zoning permit to allowing certain technologies based on ambient air impact assessment is at least questionable. Other area with unforeseeable consequences to the level of ambient air protection and its quality in the future is the upcoming non-binding nature of underlying administrative acts issued by the authorities concerned. Binding opinions issued by the ambient air protection authorities are intended to have a non-binding legal nature in the forthcoming Act. Appropriate level of expertise should be ensured by the state construction management itself which should newly absorb majority of the civil servants dealing with ambient air protection, therefore the guarantee of assessment should arise from the internal procedures within one administrative authority. Finally, the new Building Act does not reflect long-lasting appeal to proclaim the limit values binding also for authorities outside of the structure of the ambient air protection authorities. Such a measures are indirectly implied by the non-satisfactory administrative practices when despite the case law of the Supreme Administrative Court, there are still issued zoning permits for industrial projects affecting the ambient air for areas with highly polluted ambient air or areas with exceeded limit values. This limited selection of arising problems regarding re-codification of public construction law and ambient air protection is not final and there are more issues to be identified with potentially negative influence on ambient air. |
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