President in favour of breaking coal mining limits in north Bohemia

Czech President Miloš Zeman has said coal mining limits the Usti region of north Bohemia should be broken in order to save over 8,000 jobs in a region suffering from high unemployment. On a visit to the Ustí nad Labem region on Thursday the president backed calls by the local authorities who have been pushing to lift the government-imposed limits on coal mining in the region approved in 1991 as a means of protecting an already devastated environment. The president further argued that breaking the coal mining limits would lower the Czech Republic´s energy dependence on foreign countries.