MMR sent a proposal for addressing comments on the Building Act

Prague - The Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) today sent a proposal to address the majority of comments on the building law, which aims to accelerate and simplify the approval of constructions. More than 5,000 comments were received, but they contained a large number of duplicates. The MMR has therefore divided them into 26 areas. The ministry spokesperson Veronika Vároši informed ČTK today.

After the MMR receives feedback from the commenting bodies, it will have until the end of March to address them.

"However, we will not resolve the comments through correspondence; instead, we will attempt to bring representatives of these commenting bodies to the same table and reach an agreement with them. Their demands often contradict each other. We are also negotiating with large cities regarding the form of territorial planning," said the Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová (for ANO). The original deadline for addressing the comments was at the end of January. The government has postponed it by two months. However, according to some experts, this deadline is also "tight."

The government expects significant acceleration and simplification of construction approvals from the new building law. According to World Bank data, the Czech Republic ranks 157th out of 190 countries in obtaining building permits.

The law has many critics. Among the most common criticisms is that it favors developers and does not protect public interests. Some opponents even claim it is unconstitutional. Dostálová repeatedly emphasizes that she is willing to make compromises in the commenting process, but the objective of the law must not be violated. "The goal of the law, even after addressing all comments, is for the construction project to be conducted in a single process and before one building office," the minister added.

The government expects to discuss the law no later than June. "If everything goes well, the first reading of the building law in the Chamber of Deputies could take place as early as July, before the parliamentary recess," Dostálová further stated. The law should come into effect at the beginning of next year. According to Dostálová, its effectiveness will be phased in, with the latest deadline being mid-2023.

Dostálová previously stated that the biggest concession she had to make was to the Association of Towns and Municipalities. In mid-January, she reached an agreement that officials responsible for building proceedings at the municipal level would not be transferred to the new state model. Originally, 13,500 officials were to be transitioned to state employment; now it will be about 7,000.

The law should now maintain building offices at the municipal level. However, decisions would be made by state-managed regional offices and the central office. Major public benefit constructions and linear projects should be resolved directly at the state level.

Dostálová met today with representatives from the private sector, especially developers and some associations. "The state has been unable for years to enforce its most important constructions, nor has it been able to publicly declare this. Only when the private sector became paralyzed did the unsustainability of the legal environment begin to be discussed and push for change. Let us realize that the largest investor is the state, and we all need those highways," added Jiří Nouza, president of the Association of Entrepreneurs in Construction in the Czech Republic.