The Cultural Committee recommended the adoption of a new heritage preservation law

Prague - The Chamber of Deputies should approve the new heritage law with amendments concerning the procedures for archaeological research or the possibility of continuing to declare monuments of local significance. The Cultural Committee recommended this to the lower house today. However, a portion of the deputies is preparing further changes to the law, which the committee will decide on only after further parliamentary discussions of the government proposal.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the law will enable more efficient management of the heritage fund. The proposal, for example, defines and emphasizes the public interest in the protection of monuments more precisely. It will provide authorities with tools to intervene in cases where the owner neglects a heritage property. It is set to introduce penalties of up to eight million crowns depending on the severity of the violation.

However, according to the Ministry, the new legal regulation will also allow property owners, whose properties are not protected but are subject to various restrictions due to their location in heritage areas, to apply for grants. The law is also supposed to regulate the conditions for architectural-historical surveys or archaeological research and strengthen the powers of the heritage inspection.

Deputy Nina Nováková from TOP 09 proposed that the responsibility for heritage care in Prague should not be left only to the city hall but also transferred to the city districts. Another proposal from TOP 09 aimed to have the state pay for emergency archaeological research through the heritage or archaeological institute, rather than the builder on whose land the research is conducted, or the municipality.

Independent deputy Karel Pražák wants to remove from the law provisions regarding the rules for architectural-historical surveys and public participation in the protection of architectural heritage.

The law faces criticism from conservationists and restorers. The Association of Organizations for the Protection and Development of Cultural Heritage and the Association of Professional Heritage Care Workers criticized the proposal for not protecting the most valuable and simultaneously the most endangered part of domestic cultural heritage - historical cities. Deputy Vítězslav Jandák from ČSSD and former Minister of Culture also had reservations about the proposal, as he unsuccessfully requested to postpone the committee's decision until March 8, to allow all planned amendments to the law to be discussed by then.