The Chamber of Deputies will discuss the postponement of parts of the Construction Act probably until March

Prague - The Chamber of Deputies will debate the proposal of coalition deputies to postpone part of the new building law no earlier than in March. It is uncertain when it will be approved. Today, deputies interrupted the discussion on this point until March 1 at the suggestion of former Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová (ANO). The proposal to interrupt was passed with the votes of 83 opposition deputies from the ANO and SPD movements, while at least 82 votes were needed. The coalition lacked the votes to overturn the opposition proposal. Twenty-one deputies from the governing parties were excused.

The interruption was even voted on twice. The Chamber initially approved the proposal, but Jan Farský (STAN) challenged the vote, stating that he had a different result on the sheet than how he voted. However, the proposal passed a second time as well.

Dostálová justified her proposal by saying that it is not possible to take the proponents' words about constructive debate seriously when not all deputies for committee members are definitively elected. However, Dostálová and other members of the former government of Andrej Babiš (ANO) are not members of any parliamentary committee. As ministers, they could not be, and the Chamber has not yet decided on their election.

Former Minister Dostálová defended the new law and pointed out, for instance, that it contains safeguards against bureaucratic inactivity or against the situation where a bureaucrat falls ill, and the office cannot function. She warned that if the proposal for a partial postponement of effectiveness passed, two building laws would come into effect: one for simple constructions and the other for reserved constructions. She noted that residential construction would fall under the existing law.

A group of coalition deputies, who criticized the new building law in the previous electoral period, proposed that the establishment of regional building authorities, which will fall under the Supreme Building Authority, be postponed for a year. The approval of ordinary constructions, family houses, garages, or even apartments would be governed by the existing legal regulation. Starting from July 1 of next year, only a Specialized and Appeals Building Authority would be established, which is to permit so-called reserved constructions, such as highways or power plants. The former opposition parties primarily disliked that building authorities would completely fall under the state. They warned that this could paralyze building proceedings and distance the process from citizens. Five parties united in the Spolu and Pirates and STAN coalitions announced before the elections that if they govern after the October elections, they will change the building law.

Coalition deputies also proposed that the Chamber could approve their proposal accelerated in the first reading. Although the representative of the proponents and current Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš (Pirates) said that he does not insist on it, it was still vetoed by the chairwoman of the ANO club, Alena Schillerová, on behalf of the ANO and SPD clubs.

The proposal sparked extensive debate today in the Chamber between supporters of the new law from the current opposition and its opponents. Minister Bartoš stated that the proponents are trying to find broader consensus than existed in the previous electoral period when the law was adopted by force. The Senate had unanimously rejected the new law at that time, but the Chamber overruled it.

"We want to ensure that there is no collapse of building proceedings in the coming years,” described the reason for submitting the proposal today the chairman of the KDU-ČSL club and another proponent, Marek Výborný. The specialized building authority is to start operating without changing the deadline. "By its nature, it is a necessary authority,” said Minister Bartoš regarding the specialized building authority and pointed out that many constructions under its jurisdiction have strategic importance and are significantly trans-regional. The Supreme Building Authority will be established only organizationally; its tasks will, in fact, be performed by the Ministry for Regional Development, but it will not be created as a separate authority, according to the explanatory report.

Concerns about the parliamentary proposal were expressed by former Deputy Minister of the Environment and current ANO MP Berenika Peštová. According to her, mayors fear that they will lose power that they do not actually have, as the power belongs to the state, and they only exercise it in delegated authority. "That power belongs to the state. These are state authorities that execute it, and they have only delegated authority,” she said. "So I would recommend mayors stop fighting against something they never had,” she added. Nevertheless, she received criticism from some coalition deputies. In her defense, she stated, among other things, that she has often negotiated with mayors in the past and that she has also been a municipal representative for eight years.