Post your questions for Martin Bursík

Czech Minister of the Environment Martin Bursík answered your questions concerning outcomes from the Informal Meeting of the EU Environment Ministers on Thursday, 16 April online in the European chat. After the chat is closed, the most interesting questions and answers from both language versions will be published in the ’News and Documents’ section on www.eu2009.cz. The chat is conducted simultaneously in two language versions – in Czech for the local public and in English for readers abroad. Czech and English questions appear only in their respective language versions. To read all the questions answered by the Minister, open both chat versions.

Questions and Answers

Helga Bjerkan, Norway, 16. 4. 2009, 12:49
Mr Bursik, the official website of the Czech Presidency indicates that only 25% of English speaking readers and 17% of French speakers think that the EU is doing enough to reduce the impacts of climate change, on the other hand the number of Czechs who are convinced about the successful managment of the impacts is 44%. Why do you think that is the case? Thank you.

responded to, 16. 4. 2009, 15:34
I wonder if the poll you mention is fully representative. Some weeks ago I read a representative opinion poll asking EU citizens how important they feel combating climate change is. More than 80% of Czech citizens answered that it is important and they put the importance on the same level as the necessity to adopt an efficient anti-crisis policy. It was my pleasure to have the opportunity to answer your questions. And I apologise to all those of you whose questions I was not able to answer- due to the chat time limit . All the best., martin bursik

Vincent Lebert, 16. 4. 2009, 12:46
Dear Mr. Minister, do you not mind that the newly designed prime minister Fischer was a member of the Communist Party during the Communist era in your country? Maybe I do not understand your history correctly, but I have always thought that the Communist Party was like a criminal organization which did many terrible things. I know that it is forbidden to use Communist symbols in your country and that some politicians even want to ban the existing Communist Party. And now you want this former COMMUNIST TO PRESIDE OVER EUROPE? I think it is a terrible message to the whole world - no matter if you participated in Communist dictatorship, you can still head the government of a EU country and be the acting president of Europe.

responded to, 16. 4. 2009, 15:31
I do mind the Communist past of Prime Minister Fischer. Please believe me that I did not know about that by the time Prime Minister Topolánek announced to me that he suggested Mr Fischer to be the next Prime Minister. I do not want to evaluate the past of Mr Fischer at all, but share your view that my country has been showing its citizens as well as European citizens that we do not have any other candidate with a non-Communist past. In the name of the Green Party I provided the new Prime Minister Fischer with three nominees for the Ministry of the Environment, Education and Culture. None of them was a Communist party member. Two of them are highly experienced in European affairs (Ladislav Miko - highest ranking Czech citizen in the European Commission DG Environment responsible for nature protection, Jakub Duerr – Deputy Minister for Education, responsible for the Czech Presidency, former pro-rector of the Palacky University in Olomouc). And last but not least Marta Smoliková, coming from an NGO in the cultural sector. This shows the attitude as well as the personal capacity of the Green Party.

Wolfy, 16. 4. 2009, 12:41
Dear Mr. Minister, I am from Germany but I follow Czech politics quite closely. Yet, I do not understand some of the recent developments in your country and I find this to be a great opportunity to ask a top Czech politician about the current government crisis: 1) Why did not Mr. Topolanek's government fight for the opportunity to finish the Presidency? As I understand it, your government gave in to the requirements of CSSD and Mr. Paroubek very quickly. 2) Your country currently has 2 Prime Ministers, if I understand it corretly - how is this possible?? Who is the "more important" one? 3) Your ministers have been quite successful in leading their European agendas, including yourself - what can we expect now from the new weak government? No activity at all? They will only "keep things running" until the Czech Presidency is over? I think this is a terrible shame that you will have new no-name representatives trying to run European agenda now. 4) How can Mr. Fischer negotiate with top-class politicians, such as Mr. Sarkozy or Mrs. Merkel or Mr. Brown? He has no political experience, as far as I have read. I find this rather amusing. It seems the Czech Republic is suggesting that we need no professional politicians at all - almost any public servant can do the job leading EU policies. Thank you for your answers and good luck!

responded to, 16. 4. 2009, 15:22
The Government lost the confidence vote. My feeling is that the Social Democrats went too far. They did not realise or did not want to realise how deep harm the fall of the Government in the middle of the Presidency would cause. I tried to persuade the President of the Social Democratic Party, Paroubek, to let us finish the Presidency. I told him that the citizens of the Czech Republic as well as the European citizens would appreciate it if he came with the constructive proposal to leave the existing Government to run the Presidency, but he refused it. The other aspect is the potential role of President Klaus. Everybody knows that he was behind the fall of the Government. He had many reasons (I add irrational ones). He is against the EU, against the Lisbon Treaty, against Prime Minister Topolánek, against the Greens in the Government and me, as well. If we do not act quickly and leave the initiative to President Klaus, the loss of international prestige will be even greater, because he will probably form an anti-Europe, anti-Lisbon, anti-climate and anti-environmental Government. To be frank, I am not able to explain the reasons why the Government fell in the middle of the Presidency, either. I have not even tried to explain it to my environment minister colleagues, because there is a lot of irrationality behind it.

Kay, 16. 4. 2009, 12:29
Hello Mr. Bursik, I've read that the EU wants to be the leader in global reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions, reducing the amounts of emissions by 30% by the year 2020. However, I think that for example China and India are a much bigger threat to the environment - what can the EU do to make them reduce their emissions in the future? And what is the position of the USA at the moment? I remember that the USA was not very happy with the Kyoto protocol. Thank you.

responded to, 16. 4. 2009, 15:12
First, political decisions on climate change should follow scientific evidence. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, says, that to stabilise the global average planet Earth temperature at 2 degrees Celsius below the pre-industrial era, the developed countries should reduce their emissions by 25 to 40% before 2020 and by 80% before 2050. The European Union has been the only group of countries to adapt its internal legislation (climate-energy package) including the binding 30% reduction target if the United States and other important economies will show a comparable mitigation effort. Via congressman Waxman the US Administration proposed a bill to reduce emissions by 6% below the 1990 levels before 2020. That is more than President Obama announced officially. My feeling is that the US understands its role and that other economies like China and India have been waiting for what the US will do. It is hard to say what the Copenhagen agreement will look like, but very probably the fast-growing economies will be obliged to adapt their Low Carbon Strategies and reduce their emissions by X% compared to the business-as-usual scenario. Our strategy is first to build the coalition with the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan and then to negotiate together with other partners to be sure that all countries (except the least development countries and small island states) will assume part of the responsibility to combat climate change.