Prague, July 12 (CTK) – The Czech Chamber of Deputies rejected the government’s heritage conservation bill, aimed to make the care of cultural and natural heritage transparent and effective, in its final reading on Wednesday, thereby definitively sweeping it from the table.
The bill was drafted by the Culture Ministry controlled by the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).
Its rejection, proposed by the opposition, was supported by 84 of the 164 deputies present, including some from the government Social Democratic Party (CSSD) and the ANO movement, while 53 deputies voted against the rejection.
The Culture Ministry promoted the bill saying it will update the present legislation from the 1980s, which is outdated because it does not reckon with the country’s transition to market economy and the return of private owners.
The new rules should prevent the developments from leading to damage and the cultural heritage’s decline, the ministry said.
The bill, if passed, would have changed the National Heritage Institute’s (NPU) role in permitting construction changes to historical monuments and the archaeological research at construction sites and it would have anchored NGOs’ participation in heritage conservation.
The position of unprotected real estate owners in protected historical reserves and zones was to improve. The bill made them eligible to subsidies like cultural monuments’ owners.
The bill also empowered authorities to react if a cultural monument were endangered.
The institute of expropriation was to change so that it could be applied in practice, which has been problematic so far.
The bill was to change the procedure of declaring heritage reservations and issuing historical zones’ protection plans.
It proposed the establishment of a council for the country’s UNESCO-listed monuments, and a new electronic system of heritage items registration.
However, a part of lawmakers criticised the bill for bringing no systemic changes but preserving what has been condemned as the present dual concept of heritage care.
Culture Minister Daniel Herman (KDU-CSL) dismissed the criticism. He said the bill has been backed by many important subjects operating in heritage care, and that the critics often used misleading and untrue arguments.
After its rejection on Wednesday, the bill has no chance to return to parliament before the October 20-21 general election.
