The government proposed to change the rules for collecting signatures of presidential candidates and dealt with the completion of Dukovany

Photo: UV ČR - on the photo Martin Kupka, Vlastimil Válek and Marek Výborný, 7 February 2024.

MPs and senators will no longer be able to support the candidacy of more than one presidential candidate before the presidential elections. The proposal to amend the law on the election of the President of the Republic was discussed by the government of Petr Fiala at a meeting on Wednesday 7 February 2024. It also dealt with the necessary preparations of the transport infrastructure needed for the start and subsequent construction of the new nuclear units at Dukovany.

In presidential elections MPs and Senators will only be able to support one candidacy with their signature. This is proposed by the government in an amendment to the law on the election of the President of the Republic. Until now, legislators could support any number of presidential candidates with their signatures, which has been criticised by the public, the Supreme Administrative Court and the Constitutional Court. The government is also proposing to allow presidential candidates seeking public support to collect signatures through an electronic petitioning tool. In addition, if the necessary 50,000 signatures are collected electronically on the basis of a citizen's unique identity, the authenticity of signatures on any paper petitions will no longer be checked for that candidate, whose use will remain permissible.

The government also addressed preparations for the project to complete the new nuclear units at Dukovany. The construction of the new reactors and the necessary facilities will also require necessary modifications to the transport infrastructure to allow for the transport of oversized components and other construction commodities, but also for the transport of construction workers from their accommodation and other demands that such a large investment project entails. The Ministry of Transport estimates that the necessary measures will require a total of CZK 13.54 billion by 2034. This year's financial requirements will be allocated from the budget of the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure and will be allocated both to the Road and Motorway Directorate (CZK 160.68 million) and to the regions concerned, the Central Bohemia, Pardubice and Vysočina Regions. For the following years, funds are also foreseen for the South Moravian Region.

The government also discussed draft amendment to the Law on Prices, which aims to minimise cases where the competences of individual price authorities overlapped in the area of price controls, to unify the rules for issuing price regulation acts and the rules for imposing fines or to set effective and reasonable levels of fines. Regional and municipal governments should have a newly narrowed scope of competence to carry out price controls only to control compliance with price regulation adopted by the respective municipality or region. More in press release of the Ministry of Finance.

The government also approved a proposal to declare a new important day, which is to be 1 May - the day of the Czech Republic's accession to the European Union. The relevant amendment to the Act on public holidays, important days and public holidays will now be considered by Parliament.

government.gv/gnews.cz-JaV_07

https://vlada.gov.cz/cz/media-centrum/aktualne/vlada-navrhla-zmenit-pravidla-sberu-podpisu-pro-prezidentske-kandidaty-a-zabyvala-se-pripravami-na-dostavbu-dukovan-211828/