Prime Minister Petr Fiala inaugurated the new Minister of the Environment Petr Hladík

On Friday, 10 March 2023, Prime Minister Petr Fiala inducted Petr Hladík as Minister of the Environment. Shortly before, he was appointed Minister at Prague Castle by President Petr Pavel. After the resignation of Minister Anna Hubáčková, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Marian Jurečka was temporarily entrusted with the management of the Ministry of the Environment from November last year. After his inauguration, the Prime Minister and the new Minister discussed the ministry's priorities for the future.

The Prime Minister stressed the important role of the Ministry of the Environment at a time when the Czech Republic is undergoing an energy transition and people need to know their investment opportunities and options that can save them money. In 2022 alone, the Ministry of the Environment approved support for domestic and large photovoltaic power plants in the amount of CZK 14 billion. “The government's original idea was to have 100,000 new solar power plants on the roofs of houses by 2025, but thanks to the great interest and active approach of the ministry, we can say that twice as many – 200,000 roofs – will be supported within two years,” said the Prime Minister.

As part of the umbrella against high prices, the Ministry of the Environment is helping to counter the effects of the energy crisis with the New Green Savings Light programme, which is aimed at vulnerable households – the elderly, people receiving housing benefit and people with third degree disabilities. They can draw on a three billion allocation to insulate facades, roofs, ceilings, floors and replace windows and front doors, which will immediately and permanently reduce their heating energy consumption. Help for the vulnerable is also being provided through boiler subsidies for the replacement of outdated solid fuel boilers, which ran last year and will be announced by the Ministry of Environment this year.

The Prime Minister also recalled the importance of protecting underground and surface water sources to prevent a repeat of the Bečva River disaster in 2020. “In response to this accident last year, the Ministry prepared and is now finalising an amendment to the Water Act, which will mean a comprehensive legislative approach to dealing with such accidents with clearly set competences and rules for individual authorities,” said Prime Minister Fiala.

The Ministry of the Environment is also particularly focused on water retention in the Czech landscape and the restoration of the natural water regime. “Billions from European and national subsidy programmes have supported and will continue to support thousands of projects for the restoration of wetlands, ponds, small water reservoirs and everything related. It is, after all, part of our programme statement. We consider the protection of water and its resources to be in the national interest, which is why we will submit a proposal for constitutional protection of water during 2023,”added the Prime Minister.

Last year, the Ministry of the Environment also pushed for a ban on the marketing of single-use plastic products. “The ministry is currently preparing legislation for the back-up of beverage packaging such as PET bottles and this is one of the things that is very likely to move forward this year,” said the Prime Minister.

Mgr. Petr Hladík graduated from the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University, majoring in Service Science, Management and Engineering. He joined KDU-ČSL in 2010 and was elected to the city council of the Brno-sever district. In 2016 he became the First Deputy Mayor of Brno. In 2018, he defended his position and became the First Deputy Mayor for the Environment. In 2022, he was re-elected and continues to serve as an ordinary councillor of the City of Brno. In 2019, he became Deputy Chairman of KDU-ČSL and Chairman of the KDU-ČSL Expert Commission for the Environment. Together with Anna Hubáčková, he prepared the programme of the SPOLU coalition and later the government's programme statement on the environment. From 9 January 2023 he served as Deputy Minister of the Environment.