Minister wants to make it harder to appeal road projects

The minister of transport, Dan Ťok, wants to speed up road and motorway projects by deterring people from launching multiple appeals against them, the news website iDnes.cz reported. The ANO appointee proposes that a fee of CZK 50,000 be attached to each objection – if the appeal is rejected, the petitioners would lose the money.

Mr. Ťok said this measure would ensure that people would only file appeals if they had a specific reason for doing so. He says environmental groups are currently bogging down the construction process by making many objections simultaneously.

However, lawyers have questioned the proposal. They say some associations or individuals would effectively lose to right to appeal against road building decisions as doing so would become economically unfeasible.