07.02.2025

Lawsuits against high-speed rail line dismissed

The small town of Chlumec at the foot of the Ore Mountains and the village of Hrobce on the southern side of the Bohemian Uplands filed a lawsuit against the route of the Dresden-Prague high-speed rail link in November. Both communities are located at the end point of a planned tunnel. At the heart of the complaints was criticism of the choice of route. In Chlumec, only one variant would have been examined, while two of the three variants in Hrobce would only have been considered as a sham because the Ministry of Defense had already rejected them beforehand. In both municipalities, other areas would have been kept free for such a route for decades, which would now not be used for this purpose.

On Monday, the Ústí nad Labem District Court dismissed both claims. The route had been selected by the Ústí nad Labem district in accordance with the law. According to judge Jiří Dörfl, Chlumec, for example, would not be affected by the planned Ore Mountains Tunnel: "In the narrow area between Chlumec and Stradov, which the plaintiff particularly emphasized, the route will run in the tunnel, so there will be no impact on the surrounding area," he said.

The mayor of Hrobce has already announced that she will appeal. Chlumec also plans to continue to fight back: "We will definitely continue. And if you ask my opinion, I'm very disappointed, because we were actually told by the court that it wouldn't affect us at all. Moreover, the court did not take into account the main argument of our lawyer at all, namely that the feasibility of the project as such was not examined at all," said independent mayor Veronika Srnková.

Hejtman Půta largely acquitted

Another report from the courtroom, this time from Liberec: the local hejtman (i.e. the head of the Liberec district) Martin Půta had been charged with abuse of office and corruption. He allegedly accepted bribes amounting to 800,000 kč (approx. 32,000 euros) from the construction company Metrostav. In addition, he allegedly provided Metrostav with benefits in connection with the reconstruction of a church in return for the employment of an acquaintance. Hejtman has been prosecuted since 2014, when he was acquitted, but the verdict was overturned in 2020.

In the opinion of the court, corruption in the second case could not be proven this time either, but Půta was found guilty of the first case and sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 Kč (approx. 2,000 euros). The verdict is not yet final, and Půta filed an appeal on the spot to prove his innocence in the first case as well.

Eight other people and five companies were charged in the same proceedings. Půta's case was more of a minor matter, but received the most media attention. Tickets had to be issued in advance to attend the trial due to limited room capacity. Hejtman is a popular figure and a strong supporter of the Neisse Euroregion and cross-border cooperation with Saxony and Poland.

Highway tunnel temporarily closed from April

The Czech Road and Motorway Directorate is planning a major overhaul of the longest highway tunnel in the Czech Republic this year: the repair of the Panenská and Libouchec tunnels (the two behind the Petrovice exit). Around 750 million Kč (approx. 30 million euros) will be invested in the first major reconstruction of the tunnel after twenty years of operation.

The renovation is scheduled to begin in April and last until the end of the year. For most of the time, one of the tubes will remain open to traffic. At the start of the work in April, in July and in October, however, full road closures are to be expected for around a week. This is likely to lead to considerable traffic problems in the villages on the detour routes.

Cars can use the neighboring border crossings in Petrovice or Cínovec during the full closures. Trucks, however, will have to travel much further, either to Hora Svatého Šebestiána in the west or to Jiříkov in the Schluckenau tip. This could lead to several thousand additional trucks per day in towns such as Děčín, Jílové, Česká Kamenice or Rumburk. According to a five-year-old traffic count, over 7,000 heavy trucks pass the border crossing on the D8/A17 highway every day.

The expected traffic chaos will be exacerbated by further construction measures such as the renovation of the Beneš Bridge in Ústí nad Labem and the closure of the bridge in Mojžíř, which will mean that the road between Děčín and Ústí nad Labem will be impassable for some time.

Renovation of the hotel on Klínovec uncertain again

It was only in November last year that there was hope that the increasingly dilapidated hotel on Klínovec would soon be rescued: the municipality of Boží Dar had found a new strategic partner in Prague Season to renovate the hotel with ample funding from the EU's Just Transition Fund. At the time, the costs were expected to amount to around 415 million Kč (approx. 16.6 million euros), 85% of which was to be subsidized. Another strategic partner had previously withdrawn.

But now new problems are emerging: Although the building is owned by the municipality of Boží Dar, the site at the top of Klínovec belongs to the municipality of Jáchymov. The mayor of Jáchymov is against the redevelopment plans because, in his opinion, they violate the current land use plan. An extension would be planned, but nothing could be added to the listed building. The municipality of Boží Dar naturally takes a different view. If an agreement is not reached soon, the subsidies will be at risk.

The hotel, which is around 120 years old, has been empty since 1993 and is falling into disrepair. A video from Czech Television from November offers an insight into the interior.

ČEZ relies on renewables

The semi-state-owned energy company ČEZ, the largest energy company in the Czech Republic, still operates nine coal-fired power plants, most of which are located in northern Bohemia and northern Moravia. Coal currently still accounts for 50% of heat and 40% of electricity production in the Czech Republic. As part of the planned coal phase-out in the Czech Republic, the Group is now beginning to convert its power plants. One of them near Mělník has already been converted into a gas and steam combined cycle power plant. The Group plans to invest a total of 3.2 billion euros in this over the next five years. Part of this will come from the EU's modernization fund, from which the Czech Republic will receive 20 billion euros.

Although replacing coal with natural gas avoids 50% to 70% of CO2 emissions, decarbonization must continue in order to achieve climate neutrality. In the longer term, ČEZ is also planning to use biogas and biomass, build large solar plants (e.g. on the sites of former lignite mines such as Nástup near Chomutov) and produce hydrogen using solar power.

Public participation in controversial lithium project

The ČEZ Group not only produces energy, but is also the majority owner of the lithium ore mining project in Cínovec. The Ústí district has now begun the first stage of public participation, giving citizens the opportunity to comment on the situation surrounding the mining, transportation and processing of lithium at Cínovec and the settlement of Dukla in the Teplice district. A decision on the project is to be made by the end of the year. Incidentally, this will run independently of the lithium project on the German side in Zinnwald.

At the beginning of the year, ČEZ reported on the current project status. The plan is no longer to process the ore near the Dukla settlement in Újezdeček on the outskirts of Teplice, but to simply reload the ore there and transport it by rail to the energy company's site at the Prunéřov power plant near Kadaň for processing. A feasibility study is currently being prepared.

There was strong local opposition to the original plans. In any case, politicians in the region are quite skeptical about the project, as a survey before the 2024 district elections showed. Like the local population, many politicians are concerned about the impact on the environment and people and also fear that the profits from the project will be generated elsewhere and not in the region.

Anyone who wants to find out more about the lithium project on the Czech side can do so at the Geomet information center in Mstišov near Dubí (address: Školní 299, Mstišov, 417 03 Dubí). It is open every Wednesday from 10 am to 4 pm. You can also see drill cores from exploratory drillings.

(This is an automatic translation by DeepL Translator.)