The deputies debated for several hours about the amendment to the building law

Prague - Yesterday, the MPs spent about four hours debating the coalition amendment to the building law, which aims, among other things, to introduce a state building administration and speed up the building proceedings. We bring you some statements that were made during the debate as recorded in the parliamentary transcript.

Minister for Regional Development Zuzana Mrázová (ANO): "The primary goal and principle of the proposed changes is to adjust the area of building permits and other plans requiring permission under the building law, creating an integrated procedure essentially led by one office concluded with one permit and one integrated administrative and judicial review with the least possible number of separate supporting acts. Therefore, we use the currently functioning Transport and Energy Building Authority as the basic building block, whose strengthening and restructuring will create a unified territorial development office. This will integrate the competencies of most of the affected state administration bodies."

MP and reporter Zuzana Ožanová (ANO): "The proponents based their proposal on the current situation - fragmented building administration among approximately 600 separate building authorities; weak territorial self-governance unable to independently procure its own planning documentation and dependent on state administration in this area; weak integration of the affected authorities; the need to still acquire many supporting acts from the affected bodies outside of the permit processes and conduct separate reviews of binding opinions; non-functional digitization of building agendas, causing proceedings to prolong and become non-transparent."

MP Michal Kučera on behalf of the TOP 09 club: "Why are we discussing the building law over and over again? Building law has become, in recent years, a symbol of a kind of legislative ping-pong. Every government promises that it will finally simplify things, and each subsequent government has to correct the mistakes of the previous one. That is simply a fact, and that alone indicates that the problem is not that nobody is trying to speed things up. The problem is that instead of a well-thought-out reform, recourse is repeatedly taken to shortcuts, such as the parliamentary proposal for the building law. And the amendment we are discussing today unfortunately bears many signs of just such an approach."

MP Marie Pošarová on behalf of the SPD club: "So our position in the SPD club is that we support this law, we even co-signed it. And why? Because the new building law brings significant changes to how construction is planned and permitted in the Czech Republic. We want more accessible housing. And that is precisely the goal of our coalition, to ensure that construction happens more quickly, simply, and without unnecessary paperwork."

MP Eliška Olšáková on behalf of the STAN club: "And how will this change affect the actual citizen, the builder? The proposal does not address this, and we also do not know. What will the network of building authorities look like, whether there will be 205, 300 or 400? The draft law grants this authority to county development offices, which will establish territorial workplaces in municipalities with extended powers and other municipalities, only if necessary. So, we do not know the number, nor is the system by which these authorities will operate in the territory known."

MP Gabriela Svárovská (for Pirates/Greens): "Before us is a parliamentary proposal outside the standard legislative process. It is a document of hundreds of pages that changes over 40 laws without undergoing proper consultation and expert opposition, for which there would be a transparent record for which someone would be held accountable. The idea that interdepartmental consultation is replaced by some informal meetings and presentations is, I think, far from the idea of a rule of law."

MP Robert Králíček (ANO): "The building law is written in the interest of the citizens. After you halted the construction process for several months with your digitization efforts, I believe it is necessary to move quickly on this, and the law is written in the interest of the citizens."

MP Lukáš Vlček (STAN): "And what I am saying here and want to say with utmost objectivity and constructiveness is that we simply have 800 pages of text, 42 laws, and we already see from many organizations, professional organizations, interest groups representing municipalities, economic entities, etc., that there are simply numerous errors. It is clear, and I say again, that I do not envy the role of the minister, who will have to deal with this, as we already see that in the second reading it will be quite a massacre to somehow, let’s say, deal with these issues."

MP Vojtěch Krňanský (Motorists): "I will reiterate that we participated in the processing in the closest team as people, as real mayors, who have the experience from local governments and also have the experience of how difficult it is in our country to build a kindergarten, a school, a playground, or a piece of sidewalk. We all agreed here that it is necessary to speed up the process and that the entire process needs to be made more efficient."