The budget allocates to the national treasury, taking away from monuments and live culture

Prague - The budget of the Ministry of Culture for next year anticipates a significant reduction in the funding of heritage programs. Heritage sites were a prominent area for former Minister Vítězslav Jandák, under whose leadership the budget proposal was created. His successor, Martin Štěpánek, also mentioned the protection of immovable cultural heritage among his priorities.
The budget proposal does include 592 million crowns for a new National Cultural Heritage Care Program, but long-standing funding for heritage sites is expected to be cut by nearly 300 million crowns. The "treasure" includes only five institutions, even though they have the word "national" in their title. The area of support for live arts is also significantly reduced, and funding for churches should also be cut.
Heritage programs funded by the ministry contribute to the owners of heritage sites in such a way that funding for repairs comes from the state, the municipality, and the owners themselves. However, for several years now, the ministry has faced criticism from both heritage site owners and experts. The amount of money that the state allocates to them has stagnated or decreased. The Association of Historical Sites of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia is also a critic.
At the opening of the European Heritage Days on Saturday, it called on politicians not to reduce the amount of money allocated to these programs in the 2007 budget. This primarily concerns the Program for the Regeneration of Urban Heritage Reserves and Zones and the Program for the Rescue of Architectural Heritage. From the regeneration program, 8,233 heritage sites have already been restored at a cost of 8 billion crowns, of which only 3.3 billion came from the state budget. According to the association, these programs mainly motivate heritage site owners to undertake repairs. They are therefore requesting that at least 350 million be allocated in the next year's budget for each program separately.
This year, the ministry allocated 160 million crowns to the regeneration program, the same amount as last year. In 2000, however, 247 million crowns went into the program, and in 2001 it was 300 million crowns. For the rescue of architectural heritage, the state contributed 331 million this year, which is also the same as last year. According to the association, these amounts no longer meet the most urgent needs, and care for heritage sites will significantly lag behind the standards of heritage care in EU countries.
The Regeneration and Rescue of Architectural Heritage Programs are among six government programs focused on this area. The total funding for heritage programs in this year's budget of the ministry is 592.5 million crowns; last year it was 591 million, and for next year it is expected to be 252 million. The proposed budget for 2007 allocates only 68 million crowns for the regeneration program and 140 million crowns for the architectural heritage rescue program.
Thus, the money saved from the reduced areas is intended to be "poured" into contribution organizations. These are increased by almost a billion (3.2 billion this year, proposed 4.2 billion). Within this chapter, there is more than 650 million for co-financing projects supported by structural and Norwegian funds. In the budget chapter concerning live culture or heritage sites, no co-financing of projects supported by the European Union is anticipated.
The budget anticipates expenditures of 6.625 billion crowns, which seems to be higher than this year's, which ultimately reached 6.357 billion. However, the money for the "national treasure" is intended to come from the cancelled National Property Fund (FNM) according to the government's resolution, and is therefore not from the state budget.
The government approved the National Cultural Heritage Care Program in June, with the expectation that 10.3 billion crowns would flow into it by 2014. This year and next year it will be financed by the FNM, from 2008 to 2011 by the FNM and the state budget, and in the last three years solely by the state. The program includes the restoration and development of the National Museum, National Library, National Film Archive, Museum of Applied Arts, and National Technical Museum.
If the expenditures of the state budget in the coming year reach 974.7 billion crowns, as is currently being considered, the share of the budget for the Ministry of Culture, including expenditures for churches, would be approximately 0.68 percent, and without them about 0.56 percent. This would be more than in the current year and last year, and approximately the same as in 2004. The proposal is still far from the one percent typical in the EU and requested by many cultural initiatives.