The City of Brno will add two new city partnerships, with the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and the Croatian capital, Zagreb, pending the approval of draft contracts by the council at its next meeting. City partnerships are contracts for cooperation, involving the exchange of experiences and best practice, as well as cooperation in culture, sports, and other areas.
“We have been cooperating with both cities for several years at various levels, and the partnership agreement is a formal step confirming these friendly ties,” said Mayor of Brno Markéta Vaňková. “We established relations with Lviv even before the war, but the Russian aggression further strengthened mutual trust, so humanitarian aid went from Brno to Lviv as well as to our official partner city Kharkiv.” This included the dispatch of several trains and trucks, mainly with medical supplies, food and hygiene products.
Collaboration With Lviv
Contacts between Brno and Lviv have been established at the municipal level, but also in the fields of culture, architecture, the environment and sports.
Examples of cooperation include residencies of Lviv authors in Brno (in cooperation with Lucía Řehoříková, the former director of the Czech Center in Ukraine), the “Invisible Ukraine” debate hosted by the Centre for Experimental Theater, and young floorball players visiting Brno for a tournament. Together with the Ukrainian Initiative of South Moravia, the city also supported the Virtual Administrator project, which makes it easier for people living in Brno to resolve official matters in Ukraine.
Other institutions in Brno which have expressed interest in cooperation with partner organisations in Lviv include the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) and the Brno House of Arts.
Cooperation With Zagreb
Mutual relations between the Cities of Brno and Zagreb are long-standing, dating back to the period before 1989. They subsided after the Velvet Revolution, but have recently been restored thanks to the efforts of the honorary consul of Croatia in Brno and the Brno council member Michal Chládek.
The exchange of experience in the fields of technical infrastructure and waste management have been going on between the two cities for some time, as has cooperation between the Brno City Theatre and the Comedy Theater in Zagreb. The City of Brno has also established contact with Czechs associated with the local Česká Beseda. Education and sport are also considered to be areas with great potential for cooperation.
FB: The City of Brno will add two new city partnerships, with the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and the Croatian capital, Zagreb, pending the approval of draft contracts by the council at its next meeting. City partnerships are contracts for cooperation, involving the exchange of experiences and best practice, as well as cooperation in culture, sports, and other areas.
PM Fiala vows to review impact of mining in Polish Turow
Jablonec nad Nisou, North Bohemia, March 13 (CTK) – Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civic Democrats, ODS) promised that he would again focus on the impact of mining in the Turow lignite mine in Poland, situated near the Czech border, during his visit to Jablonec nad Nisou today.
He was reacting to a court decision in Warsaw that invalidated the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Turow mine, which allowed the extension of work at the mine.
The current Czech-Polish treaty is not working, said Milan Starec of the Uhelna association, who asked the prime minister before the cabinet meeting to reopen the issue during the talks with his Polish counterpart.
People on the Czech side are mainly worried about groundwater loss.
“We who live in the immediate vicinity know that the agreement is not working. There will definitely have to be one. We have never said that the mine should be closed overnight, but there definitely has to be a final agreement. It should be on the basis of some time and territorial compromises, but not that the Polish government will just send some money and mining will continue indefinitely,” Starec said.
At the same time, he handed over to the prime minister a publication with the fate of people within the mine’s reach on the Czech, Polish and German sides of the border.
The agreement on the resolution of the impact of lignite mining in the Polish Turow mine was signed by the prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Poland in February 2022. Poland and PGE, which owns the mine and the neighbouring power plant, then paid 45 million euros (roughly 1.14 billion crowns) in compensation for the damage, of which 35 million euros went into the transparent account of the Turow Fund, managed by the Liberec Region. It currently has over 917 million crowns in it thanks to interest.
According to Fiala, all expert opinions indicated that the agreement was desirable, which is why he did everything he could to unblock negotiations with the Poles after taking office. “We agree that the deal is correct. If the court ruled so, we will look at the results and continue to discuss it,” Fiala promised.
According to Liberec Region Governor Martin Puta (Mayors for the Liberec Region), the court ruled on a lawsuit filed by the German town of Zittau because the Polish side did not take their comments into account when preparing the assessment.
“I welcome the decision, I think that in such a sensitive place, where the mining does not concern only one state, but the inhabitants of three countries, it is important to address the legitimate objections that have been raised,” Puta said.
The Turow mine near the Czech-Polish border supplies coal mainly to the neighbouring power plant. PGE Group, which owns the mine and the power plant, plans to mine there until 2044. The mine is to be gradually expanded to 30 square kilometres along the road from Zittau to Bogatynia.
Residents on the Czech side of the border are particularly worried about the loss of groundwater and increased dust and subsidence.
Starec, who lives in the settlement closest to the mine, welcomed the court’s decision to cancel the EIA today. “The court has de facto given us the benefit of the doubt,” he said.
But the Polish administrative court also said its decision was not a reason to stop mining, the PAP Polish news agency has reported.
