New environment minister appointed

Czech President Václav Klaus on Thursday appointed Rut Bízková the country’s new environment minister. The nominee of the centre-right Civic Democrats replaces Jakub Šebesta. He briefly combined the environment portfolio with his ongoing job as Minister of Agriculture. The new environment minister faces a backlog of decisions concerning the pumping of EU funds and modifications to the country’s energy cutting ‘Green Saving’ programme. She has also said she will take a quick decision over whether to clear the modernisation of a controversial coal-fired power plant in the north-west of the country. Previous environment minister Jan Dusík resigned in protest after Prime Minister Jan Fischer to give him more time to negotiate improvements to the plant with Czech energy giant ČEZ.