The Senate approved the abolition of the Supreme Building Authority and its subordinate authorities

Prague - The planned Supreme Building Authority and its subordinate system of regional building authorities will not be established. The abolition of a purely state building administration in the new building law of 2021 was approved today by the Senate in the government amendment to the building law. Building authorities will thus remain with the municipalities. Only a Transport and Energy Building Authority subordinate to the Ministry of Transport will be created, which will be mainly responsible for transport and energy constructions. The amendment to the new building law is intended to speed up and simplify the building process in its approved form. It will now be sent to the president for signature.

A total of 61 out of 73 present senators voted for the approval of the amendment. Two of the Senate's committees recommended that the plenary approve the amendment in its presented form. Senators did not agree to the proposal from their constitutional-law committee to return the amendment to the Chamber. The committee wanted to enshrine the rule that building authorities in municipalities should be preserved by law, and not just by a decree from the Ministry of Regional Development.

Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš (Pirates) disagreed with this. The chairman of the Senate club of ODS and TOP 09, Zdeněk Nytra, warned that in such a case, building authorities could only be abolished by changing the law.

The new building law of 2021, which was promoted by the then government of Andrej Babiš (ANO), considers the establishment of a state building administration and the transition of building authorities under the state. It was mainly supposed to speed up the building process by adhering to deadlines. However, the then opposition parties, which now form the government coalition, did not like the establishment of a new state authority and decided to abolish it.

The amendment preserves the 694 current building authorities in municipalities with the possibility of reducing this number according to building activity. Bartoš stated today that a similar performance model has been introduced for building authorities as currently applies to registries. He reported that about twenty building authorities would like to merge.

The Senate debate lasted over two hours and 16 senators spoke during it. In an adopted accompanying resolution, the Senate called on the Ministry for Regional Development to prepare the relevant decree establishing municipal building authorities in a timely manner while maintaining the current coverage of public administration with building authorities.

The amendment to the building law is set to come into effect on July 1, 2024, and for reserved constructions, such as highways or power plants, it will apply from January 1, 2024.