Documents and Laws in Parliament

The amendment modifies a part of the amendment on state monument care so as to preserve a stronger role of the monument care authorities in monument reserves and zones and greater legal certainty when authorising interventions. The definition of the purpose of the law and cultural monuments is amended, now explicitly including the possibility to protect human remains associated with monuments. The draft cancels some of the changes to the main amendment, in particular deleting the termination of older protection zones by 2028 and rejecting the transfer of some procedures to non-binding statements only. At the same time, it newly unifies offences and regulates the competences of building and conservation authorities.

The amendment clarifies the rules for withdrawing from a distance financial services contract. It changes the wording from the more specific ‘button or similar control’ to the general ‘control’ so that the law is not tied to a specific technical solution. Consumer protection is not changed under the proposal, but the regulation is intended to be more technology neutral and less burdensome for businesses.

The proposal amends the Competence Act to explicitly extend the remit of the Cabinet Office. The Office of the Government now has a statutory coordination role in the protection of human rights, equal treatment, minority rights, civil society, gender equality including related forms of violence, and inter-ministerial coordination of drug policy. This is mainly a statutory confirmation of the agendas that the Office of the Government already effectively carries out. It is proposed to take effect on 1 January 2027.

The amendment maintains the existing rule that a failure to assess creditworthiness renders the loan agreement void and removes the Government’s proposed amendment that would have mitigated this voidability. It also introduces a rebuttable presumption that the consumer has been creditworthy if he or she has repaid the loan in full or, in the case of special purpose housing loans and building society loans, has duly repaid the loan for at least 18 months. For combined mortgage loans, the predominant purpose of the loan is used for this assessment. The presumption does not apply to small short-term micro-loans.

The amendment introduces a simplified assessment of creditworthiness for interest-free deferred payments for goods or services up to the average wage. For these loans, the use of income register data, payment account information and data from databases to assess creditworthiness should be sufficient. The proposal thus reduces the administrative burden and is intended to preserve the availability of this type of financing; at the same time, the text of the main amendment clarifies the wording from ‘riskiness’ to ‘credit risk for the consumer’ and from ‘repayment capacity’ to the more general ‘creditworthiness of the consumer’.

The amendment protects the Thursday time set aside for written and oral interpellations from being crowded out by extraordinary sittings of the Chamber of Deputies called at the request of Members. If such a sitting overlapped with this time, the proceedings must be suspended; an exception could be made only if at least 121 Members expressly requested it. The proposal thus strengthens the House’s scrutiny function vis-à-vis the government, while preserving the possibility of extraordinary procedure in the event of broad consensus.

The amendment adds to the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies so that the daily sitting of the plenary will not normally take place during the autumn recess, including 28 October, and on the day of the half-year recess. However, the House retains the option of deciding to sit on these days. The motion concerns only the plenary, not committees or other bodies, and has no budgetary implications.

The amendment adds to the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies so that the daily sitting of the Chamber of Deputies will not take place on the first and last day of school, unless the Chamber decides otherwise. The aim is to better balance the work of Members with family commitments and to increase the predictability of proceedings. The proposal concerned only the plenary, not committees or other bodies of the House, and had no budgetary implications.

The amendment merely postpones the entry into force of the amendment to the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies until 1 January 2027.The aim is to preserve the predictability of parliamentary processes, legal certainty and to give the Chamber, committees and the administration more time to adapt to the new rules. The proposal therefore does not change the content of the reform, but the timing of its introduction.

The amendment modifies the rules for active flood zones in the Water Act. It now explicitly allows green infrastructure and leisure areas only on condition that they do not impair the course of the flood, are not fenced off and their equipment can be quickly removed. At the same time, it abolishes the previously proposed broader permitting of buildings for sport and culture as well as the exception for furniture, and rejects the possibility of permitting buildings merely when planning flood protection measures.

The amendment introduces the fiction of permits for simple buildings and technical infrastructure networks in an accelerated procedure if the building authority does not decide within the statutory time limit. The building authority must then issue a certificate within 15 days and publish it, while the superior authority may review within 3 months whether the conditions for such authorisation have been met. The aim is to significantly speed up the permitting of less complex buildings and reduce the impact of inaction by the authorities.

The amendment restores to municipal authorities of municipalities with extended competence broader monument supervision also over interventions under the State Monument Protection Act on properties in monument reserves and zones which are not themselves cultural monuments. This corrects an amendment from the main proposal which narrowed the supervision to the restoration of cultural monuments and created a gap between permitting, control and sanctioning. The aim is for the authority to be able to control the activities it decides on and impose fines for breaches.

The amendment changes who in the municipality approves a variance from zoning documentation under the Building Code. This power is transferred from the municipal council to the municipal council, while the council is now to decide only on a zoning variance. The aim is to increase transparency and reduce doubts about non-transparent or corrupt granting of variances, as the council’s deliberations are public.

The amendment removes a provision that was intended to allow a court decision to replace the lack of municipal, borough or regional consent to the conclusion of a planning agreement. The drafters argue that this change would weaken local government and could interfere with the constitutionally guaranteed right of municipalities and counties to decide their own affairs. Thus, the proposal maintains that local governments are to decide whether to enter into a planning agreement without the possibility of judicial supersession of their will.

The amendment abolishes the transitional provision that required municipalities and regions to leave the premises of the existing building offices to the new building administration for up to 5 years at the usual rent. The drafters consider this to be an unreasonable interference in the self-government and property decision-making of municipalities and regions. The proposal also points out that the original regulation did not address the practical problems of shared archives, services, IT and movable property.

The amendment modifies the part of the amendment relating to state conservation so as to preserve a stronger role of conservation authorities and expert documents in conservation reserves, zones and protection zones. The original weakening of monument protection is changed: for selected projects, a decision or binding opinion is retained, while in protection zones the building authority is now obliged to rely on a written statement from an expert organisation. The draft also redefines the competence of building authorities as conservation authorities, regulates offences and maintains high fines of up to CZK 2 and 4 million. It also includes transitional rules for the takeover of ongoing proceedings by the new land development authorities.

The amendment changes the exemption from property tax for certain types of other areas. It proposes that some land should now be exempted directly by law, rather than depending solely on a municipal ordinance. The aim is to provide relief to owners of unusable areas that are more for nature conservation and public benefit, as municipalities have hardly used the tax relief option so far.

The amendment mainly renames the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Ministry of Economy, effective from 1 January 2027, and reflects this change in the Construction Act and a number of related regulations. At the same time, it provides that references in other legislation to the original Ministry are to be treated as references to the new designation from that date, so that it is a change of name without creating a new authority and without breaking legal continuity. The draft also adds the obligation for the professional chambers to inform the Territorial Development Authority of the suspension or withdrawal of the authorisation of an authorised person. The changes mainly affect the economic administration, energy, mining, waste and nuclear sectors.

The amendment extends the annex to the Act on accelerating the construction of strategically important infrastructure to include other energy constructions. It newly includes nuclear power plants in Tušimice and Dětmarovice and gas power plants in Počerady, Mělník, Prunéřov, Dětmarovice and Ledvice among the energy security structures. The aim is to give these projects the same strategic status and to speed up their authorisation.

The amendment amends the Energy Act and the Act on Supported Energy Sources. It introduces an obligation for the chairman of the Energy Regulatory Office to have a security clearance at the level of Confidential, otherwise he should be removed, and this obligation will also apply to the current chairman. At the same time, the threshold for mandatory state authorisation for the construction of power generation plants is increased from 1 MW to 100 MW, thereby reducing the administrative burden. For subsidies for supported sources, the payment is changed from quarterly to monthly, now according to the actual costs of the market operator.