PR:Government Nuclear Energy Committee – Dealing With Hundreds of Billions of Czech Crowns in a Non-Transparent Way
=> CZECH version of this press release
Press Release by Calla – Association for Preservation of the Environment dated June 15, 2017
Government Nuclear Energy Committee – Dealing With Hundreds of Billions of Czech Crowns in a Non-Transparent Way
Today, another meeting of the Permanent Nuclear Energy Committee (SVJ) was held in a village of Dukovany. Although it deals with the preparation of investments in new nuclear reactors which is worth hundreds of billions of Czech crowns and has an impact on the public budgets and people’s financial situation, its approach is accompanied by unusual lack of transparency. Since 2017, no meeting minutes have been processed, instead of them there are only summary conclusions - press releases intended for the public. This is apparent from the response of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO) to Calla's request for the release of the minutes [1].
Given that SVJ has 10 permanent and 15 non-permanent members and its key task is the interdepartmental coordination of state administration and municipal authorities in the implementation of the National Action Plan for the Development of Nuclear Energy in the Czech Republic, it is difficult to imagine the meaningfulness of the Committee’s work without taking a record or minutes with tasks and deadlines, etc.
Edvard Sequens, Energy Consultant of Calla, said: "Concealing the details of the work of the Government Nuclear Energy Committee is alarming because it concerns the preparation of the most demanding investment project in the history of the Czech Republic, which, in the event of implementation, pulls out hundreds of billions of citizens' money from their wallets."
Additional information can be obtained from:
- Edvard Sequens, email: edvard DOT sequens AT calla DOT cz[2], tel.: +420 602 282 399
Notes:
- ↑
- On March 6, 2017, Calla requested the "Minutes of the 3rd Meeting of the Permanent Nuclear Energy Committee dated January 19, 2017" from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO) based on the Act No. 106/1999 Coll., On Free Access to Information Disclosure.
- On March 21, 2017, the MPO refused to provide this information, stating as follows: "The 3rd Meeting of the Permanent Nuclear Energy Committee took place on 19th January 2017. The minutes of the 3rd meeting were not drawn up. The "Conclusions of the 3rd Meeting of the Permanent Nuclear Energy Committee" have been processed, and have been published to the Ministry's website (http://www.mpo.cz/cz/energetika/novy-jaderny-zdroj/zavery-z-3--zasedani-staleho-vyboru-pro-jadernou-energetiku--226632/ ), in such a way, which allows remote access. The requested information does not exist."
- On March 27, 2017, Calla requested the information as follows: "Who has decided and by what justification that the minutes of the Permanent Nuclear Energy Committee will not be taken? How specifically are the decisions, the tasks, the arguments or the responsibility taken for the fulfillment of the decisions in these meetings?" from the MPO pursuant to Act No. 106/1999 Coll., On Free Access to Information Disclosure.
- On April 7, 2017, MPO responded to Calla as follows: "According to the Ministry's information, the Permanent Nuclear Energy Committee has decided to process and publish summary conclusions from the meetings."
- A complete correspondence on this matter can be sent to interested parties upon request.
- ↑ For protection against automatic email address robots searching for addresses to send spam to them this email address has been made unreadable for them. To get a correct mail address you have to displace "AT" by the @-symbol and "DOT" by the dot-character (".").