Environmental Transitions by Pavlínek Petr; Pickles John; & John Pickles

Author:Pavlínek, Petr; Pickles, John; & John Pickles [Petr Pavlínek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 166439
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

The legislative revolution in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic

Environmental reforms were launched in Czechoslovakia in 1990. This section will discuss both the federal policies of the former Czechoslovakia between 1990 and 1992 and the policies of the Czech Republic after Czechoslovakia split on 31 December 1992. The discussion of the situation in Slovakia after independence follows this section. The federal laws became the bases for the laws of both Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Czechoslovakia had quite comprehensive but largely ineffective environmental legislation during the state socialist period. Major environmental laws enacted in the late 1960s and 1970s included the Air Purity Law (1967), Water Act (1973, which revised the Water Conservation Law of 1955), Agricultural Land Protection Act (1976), and Revision to the Forestry Act (1977, which revised the Forestry Act of 1960) (Hrbáček, Binek and Mejstřík 1989:144–6; Andrews 1993:13; Carter 1985:36–7) (Table 8.1). By 1972, over 350 environmental regulations had been enacted into law (Carter 1985:36), introducing among other measures fines and fees for air and water pollution, compensations for conversion of agricultural land to other uses, and protective measures for land and forested areas. Pollution charges, fines and user fees were so low, however, that they provided no incentive for the polluters to reduce pollution discharges (World Bank 1992a–I:17).

As a result, environmental protection was very fragmented. No central office existed that could deal with environmental protection, management and enforcement of existing laws and regulations. Instead, different ministries such as the Ministry of Forest and Water Management and Woodworking Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Nutrition, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Building and Development were each responsible for different areas of environmental protection and management (World Bank 1992a–II:6). In 1988, jurisdictional ambiguities were further compounded with the creation of the Ministry of Interior and Environment by adding jurisdiction for environmental matters to the existing Ministry of Interior. The powers of the enlarged ministry and its role in the area of environmental management and protection were poorly defined and institutionally weak.

The government was preparing to establish a Ministry for the Environment before the events of November 1989 speeded up the process. The Ministry was established on 1 January 1990 and the establishment of the Federal Committee for the Environment (FCE) followed in early 1990. The Federal Committee for the Environment was not a ministry led by a minister. Instead, it was a committee of ministers, both federal and republic (Czech and Slovak), led by a chairman. It was designed to coordinate environmental protection and management among different sectors of the economy and government. The priorities of the FCE were to build state environmental administration, inform the population about environmental conditions, and develop a new system of environmental legislation and laws for the transformation from a centrally planned to a market economy. The FCE was also very active on the international level by establishing cooperative projects in environmental protection and management with neighboring countries.2 The Slovak Commission for the Environment was set up in

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