Prague, July 31 (CTK) – President Milos Zeman signed the implementation of the European Investigation Order in harmony with the respective EU directive, along with other bills into laws on Tuesday, his spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has said.
The EU member states were to transpose this European directive, under which international cooperation will be based on a special order form and not on a request as so far, into their legislation by May 2017.
The Czech Republic is one of the last EU countries not to have done so and it may face sanctions for the delay.
The European Investigation Order is to be used for legal assistance in obtaining evidence in another member state. The bill regulates the procedure for the issuance of the order and describes the reasons for dismissing an order or postponing it.
The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, approved the bill in June and the Senate, the upper house, in July. The Chamber received the bill in the past election term, but did not manage to deal with it before the general election held in October 2017.
Beyond the framework of the government bill on the European Investigation Order, deputies modified the new way of the coverage of the compensation for the people damaged by a crime to apply to penal orders as well.
Zeman on Tuesday also signed an amendment, proposed by the Senate, under which the Constitutional Court judges, like lawmakers, would be stripped of the full immunity for misdemeanours, and would be responsible for them as any other citizens.
Besides, Zeman signed an amendment to the school law to postpone the start of the reform of the regional schools funding by one year. Moreover, nurseries will not be obliged to admit two-year old children in the future either, under the legislation.
Universities’ authorisation to secure some of the current study programmes will be prolonged by about five years, under the MPs’ amendment that Zeman signed on Tuesday. The reason was a slowdown in the accreditation of new study programmes.
Zeman also signed an amendment to the law on air protection, which would prolong the due periods for mandatory checks of boilers from two to three years. The amendment will also give advantage to some organic fuel additives into petrol and diesel oil.
