ČSSD head pushing for lifting coal mining limits

Prague, Feb 8 (CTK) - Czech Social Democrat (CSSD) chairman Jiri Paroubek said Monday he personally supports the lifting of coal mining limits in north Bohemia because this would help lower unemployment in the Usti Region, but added that a regional referendum should be held on the issue.

Paroubek said the lifting of the limits would also have a positive impact on the Czech Republic's energy security.

He said, however, his party will only conduct discussion on the issue and that its opinion may differ from his own.

He said Monday the decision on the issue must not be made at a table, but "the inhabitants of the Usti Region must make it," Paroubek said.

Paroubek will be running in the Usti Region in the May general election.

The CSSD has long been pushing for a bill on regional referendum to be passed. It has succeeded in the Chamber of Deputies, but the Senate has vetoed the bill.

Paroubek called on the parties that talk about the limits to support the referendum bill in the Chamber of Deputies.

"We are calling on the ODS not to resort to obstruction," he said.

Paroubek said a possible regional referendum could be held in about one year.

"If the referendum result is opposite to my private opinion, I will fully respect it," Paroubek said.

The lifting of the limits is mainly opposed by the Greens Party (SZ). Its deputy and former chairman Martin Bursik will be running against Paroubek in the region in the elections.

The Greens have been striving for an amendment to the mining law making the procedure of writing off coal beyond set borders more precise.

According to the draft, mining firms would have a one-year deadline for submitting necessary documents for the administrative proceedings on coal deposits write-offs. A failure would carry high sanctions. No such deadline is embedded in the valid law.

Jan Fischer's interim government withdrew a similar draft amendment from the Chamber of Deputies recently. Bursik got into a sharp conflict with Fischer over it.

The Chamber of Deputies also has another similar draft amendment prepared by a group of deputies and it should discuss it at the extraordinary session on Wednesday that the ODS initiated.

In exchange, media say, the Greens are to help the ODS block the left-wing parties' bills that they say would raise the state budget deficit.

Many ODS deputies say, however, they will not support any change to the mining law.