Nothing will become unnecessarily expensive, there is no “Czech Green Deal”, Fiala responds to speculation

Prime Minister Petr Fiala sharply objected to claims by the opposition and some media, according to which the government is preparing a sharp increase in the price of gasoline, diesel or coal. According to him, this is unacceptable and the Czech Republic will not make greater commitments in environmental protection than those it has already committed to in the past. “I can assure everyone that there will be no Czech Green Deal here,” he said.

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“I can assure everyone that there will be no Czech Green Deal here,” said Prime Minister Petr Fiala. | Video: Radek Bartoníček

On Wednesday, the government was supposed to approve a trio of documents – the State Energy Concept, the Climate Protection Policy and the National Climate and Energy Plan. Some media deduced from this that there will be a sharp increase in the price of gasoline, coal and construction. She referred to the plans collectively as the “Czech Green Deal”, even though it has nothing to do with the European Union’s plan of the same name.

“Gasoline and diesel will become more expensive by up to ten crowns from 2027, building new houses will be more difficult due to stricter emission standards and rules. Power plants and heating plants will completely stop burning coal, which will increase in price by up to a third in the coming years,” wrote the daily MF Dnes on Wednesday .

Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) objected to this. “I don’t care if I read in all the media in the morning that the government is preparing a new Green Deal, that everything will be more expensive, that petrol will cost ten crowns more and so on. I can understand people being scared and dissatisfied,” he said following Wednesday’s the government’s actions, according to which “some of this is not true at all”. But he was not more specific. The government has so far postponed the discussion of the mentioned three documents.

“We will look at all the documents in the government to see if we have missed something somewhere. And if so, we will correct it. It is unacceptable for the government to make greater commitments than those given by the EU and those negotiated in the past for the Czech Republic. Likewise it is unacceptable for us to unnecessarily raise the prices of things that we do not want to raise for people and companies,” said Fiala.

But opposition politicians claim that the government wants a greener policy than is implied by the commitments, and is planning to raise prices. “During the EU presidency, they agreed to extend emission allowances to households and at the same time chose the toughest version of the Green Deal, which no one forced them to,” claims, for example, the first vice-chairman of the ANO movement, Karel Havlíček.

But Prime Minister Fiala refutes this. “I can assure everyone that there will be no Czech Green Deal here. The idea that things will become more expensive for people and companies is something that we do not want to do, that we will not do and that we will only accept where the Czech government has already committed to it in the past and where it cannot be changed,” Aktuálně.cz said. According to him, the European Union itself is retreating from some original plans regarding environmental protection.

“We are proceeding very sensibly and rationally. The whole of Europe is going through a phase where they are thinking that the set goals of the Green Deal do not lead to the understanding of citizens or to strengthening Europe’s competitiveness and our prosperity. When this is not being achieved, it needs to be corrected. It is maybe look more at the prosperity of people and companies. And that’s what our government is doing,” said Fiala.