Government approves plan to limit parliamentary immunity

The proposal will be discussed between the coalition government representatives and the opposition Czech Social Democratic Party.

The government further rejected the Social Democrats’ proposal for direct election of president, which suffered from many imperfections. Minister of Justice will draft a new proposal that will follow the coalition agreement.

“According to the proposal tabled by coalition parties, the amendment of the Constitution limits criminal immunity only for the term of the mandate served by a deputy or senator. In accordance with the proposal, the deputies and senators will also lose the special transgression immunity,” explained Prime Minister Petr Nečas.

“We will discuss this with Social Democrats. If they join this initiative then it will mean that the immunity limitation will cease to be only a topic of discussions and that it will be actually implemented,” added the Prime Minister.

Government disagrees with national referendum and with abolishing of the fees

The Ministers issued a negative standpoint to certain Social Democrats MPs’ proposals at today’s meeting. The proposals sought to abolish the regulatory fees paid in connection with healthcare services. “The Government Legislative Council confirmed again that the regulatory fees are not in conflict with the Constitution. Therefore the main argument in support of the Social Democrats’ proposal is obsolete. The loss of revenue generated by the fees and the limitation of related savings brought by these regulatory fees could be fatal for the health insurance balance,” said Prime Minister Petr Nečas.

The government also rejected the proposed amendment to the Constitutional Act on national referendums. According to the Ministers the proposal lacks an outline of the related norms that would implement the Constitutional Act itself and unambiguous definition of issues related to this measure, and the proposal seeks to create a new category of legal acts that cannot be rapidly amended.

Flood damage aid

Finally, the government decided that the Czech Republic shall submit, by July 26, an application for aid from the EU Solidarity Fund to remedy damage caused by recent floods. “If we are successful, we could receive as much as CZK 131 million. Although it is not a great amount in comparison with the total estimated damage, amounting to CZK 5.25 billion, we believe it is our obligation, due to the condition of public funds, to apply for this aid,” said Petr Nečas.

Martin Kupka, government spokesman