The Czech Republic plans to allocate most of the EU’s Fair Transition Fund to large strategic projects that involve significant risks and have long been criticised, Euractiv reports.
Jan Kříž, Deputy Minister of Environment of the Czech Republic, made this statement. He added that in order to receive funding, projects must undergo a thorough approval procedure.
The Just Transition Fund was established as part of the multi-annual financing programme (MFF) for 2021-2027. The main aim of the fund is to support regions with heavy industry in their green transformation. The Czech Republic, with its three coal mining regions, will receive 1.7 billion euros.
The funds allocated by the EU must be spent in a short time – 70 per cent of the fund must be spent by the end of 2026. Due to the tight timeframe, the Moravian-Silesian region decided to spend about half of the allocated funds on large, so-called strategic projects. Kříž said:
Implementation is not easy because of strict rules. It is very ambitious to certify 70% of the EU money by the end of 2026. That is why we had to come up with, let’s say, an innovative way of implementation.
However, NGOs have criticised strategic projects for their huge costs, non-transparent selection process, and the fact that some projects have been prepared by mining companies. Ondřej Kopečný, director of the Czech branch of Transparency International, warned during a conference on regional policy organised in the Czech city of Ostrava in mid-November:
The original intention of the European Commission was to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, thereby increasing the diversity and resilience of the local economy. Supporting large companies through strategic projects rather preserves the current situation.
Petr Votoupal from the EU Commission’s DG REGIO noted:
The controversial topic is productive investments by large companies. The Commission does not support this, but an exception has been made because large enterprises are key for some regions.
The Ministry of Natural Resources recognises that strategic projects involve certain risks. Kříž said:
I have to say that strategic projects are the biggest risk of the program because some of them have very long permitting processes, we have to push for speed.
