A new law on accelerating the use of renewable energy sources, the draft of which was discussed and approved by the government of Petr Fiala at a meeting on Wednesday 12 March 2025, is intended to speed up the implementation of projects for the construction of new renewable energy sources and the necessary infrastructure. It also approved changes to the Ministry of Regional Development's programme Support for the Restoration and Development of Regions, which will allow the state budget to increase its co-financing and, among other things, help smaller municipalities affected by floods to finance projects for the restoration of municipal property.
New Act on accelerating the use of renewable energy sources further simplifies the permitting process for wind and solar power plants. This is to be helped in particular by the possibility to define, under the conditions set out in the law, so-called acceleration areas where a simplified approval process can be applied for the construction of new renewable energy sources and related infrastructure. For example, projects in acceleration zones will not have to undergo an environmental impact assessment (EIA) if they meet the conditions of the European Directive on the promotion of the use of renewable energy sources, which will significantly speed up the whole process. These will be sites that have the potential to produce renewable energy efficiently without having negative environmental impacts. The Ministry of the Environment will prepare the relevant mapping documents for municipalities and regions. More in press release of the Ministry of the Environment or in press release of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The government also agreed to a proposal to amendment to the programme Support for the renewal and development of regions. This key programme of the Ministry of Regional Development includes a number of sub-programmes and the Government has approved an increase in the current maximum co-financing from the state budget for some of them. The increase will have a positive impact on smaller municipalities affected by last year's floods. According to the amended conditions of the Živel 1 sub-programme, the state can reimburse up to 100 per cent of eligible expenses for the reconstruction of municipal property in cases of municipalities with small budgets. In the case of the sub-programmes Support for the development of economically and socially endangered areas and Support for smart cities, municipalities and regions, the state's co-financing will be increased from 30 to 50 per cent of eligible expenditure, and the changes also concern the sub-programme for the popular Village of the Year competition. Details include press release of the Ministry for Regional Development.
The government approved, among other things, this year's Priorities of the humanitarian programme of the Ministry of the Interior Assistance on the ground and also agreed to provide two monetary donations abroad totalling CZK 50 million, namely CZK 25 million to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to support internally displaced persons and returnees in Syria and CZK 25 million to the International Organization for Migration for safe zones for unaccompanied minors in Greece. It also agreed on this year's priorities MEDEVAC Permanent Health and Humanitarian Programme. Both programmes aim to improve living conditions in the source countries of irregular migration or in countries most affected by refugee transit.
The Cabinet also agreed Increase in funding for the national drug policy programme. An additional CZK 100 million will be allocated from the state budget for the Government Office's subsidy title "Drug Policy", which will be used for projects to strengthen the network of addiction services, to support prevention activities, to increase the awareness of the professional and lay public on addiction issues, and for the early detection and intervention of people who have run into problems with an addiction and need professional help as soon as possible.
Government of the Czech Republic/ gnews.cz - RoZ
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