Czech Republic
Public participation in decision making towards sustainable development
I. Present situation / problems
Nearly two decades after political and social change in Central Europe, Prague, as much as other cities of the region, faces new challenges. The city hosts hundreds of thousands tourists every year, attracts investors and developers; on the other hand, it has to deal with immigration, suburbanisation, increased demands for transport and energy, increased waste production, etc.
Although Prague operates huge budgets (tax money, EU subsidies), by far not all the resources are addressed to sustainable solutions of existing shortcomings. Prague doesn’t have a sustainable transport strategy – 80% of the budgets aims to new highways and tunnels construction. Individual car transport is the central point of thinking of transport within the city; pedestrians and bikers are still out of attention. Flow of new companies and inhabitants causes problems in the suburbs, as well as in the city centre itself. Suburbanisation destroys villages and countryside at Prague’s outskirts. There is a strong pressure to build over free lots in the centre (public spaces, parks, islands etc.) and rebuild historical buildings for offices and hotels.
Level of corruption in Czech Republic is one of the highest in all EU. Many development projects are in contradiction with the interests of the city and its citizens. Budgets are used ineffectively, public participation in decision making is considered as obstruction.
II. Project objectives
The general objective is fulfilment of the aims of Local Agenda 21 in Prague. Overall objective of this project is to strengthen the voice of the citizens of Prague, support public discussion over sustainable development of the city, and increase public participation in decision making on all important projects and strategies. This project has three specific objectives:
- Increase level of public participation in decision making, start public discussion on sustainable development strategies, suitable for Prague, using examples and ‘successful stories’ from other EU cities.
- Stop some of the most harmful development projects that could damage cultural heritage and/or destroy public space and greenery, by public campaigns and legal instruments.
- Enforce sustainable transport solutions for Prague – restrain investments into highways and concreting; promoting biking, supporting public transportation, ensuring safer and more comfortable walking.
Public participation in decision making on development projects
We will watch all strategic decisions made by City Council (especially changes in the Urban Plan of Prague) and publish respective information through media. Similarly, we will watch ESIA (environmental and social impact assessment) procedures and permitting of projects with broad impact to the environment. (We expect, that in 2007, among these projects will be, for example: construction of new sewage waters treatment plant in sensitive area, construction of skyscrapers near city center, rebuilding of ‘Rohansky’ and ‘Libensky’ islands on Vltava river for housing and office parks, etc.).
We encourage people to comment on significant projects, through a special website and through decision making procedures. In the most affected areas, we will support grassroot NGOs and citizens’ action groups in enforcing their viewpoint (by legal support, media, experts, etc.). We will pay special attention to the projects financed from public budgets and EU subsidies.
Preserving greenery and public space
Within the project, we will create public control over projects leading to decrease of public space (e.g. construction in green areas) and destruction of greenery (insensitive streets and parks reconstructions, etc.). In most of the cases, people living in affected areas are not informed in before, and their objections come too late to save the trees, parks and squares. We will start public awareness campaign and support timely public participation in decision making. In the most significant cases, we will start public campaigns to save respective places for people living in the city.
Public campaign for sustainable transport
There was an informal coalition ‘Auto*Mat’ established in 2003, promoting biking as alternative way of individual transport within Prague to the cars. Another NGO network, ‘SOS Praha’, is opposing huge investment into new highways construction in Prague (inner circle, bypass highways) that brings new cars to the city centre. Within the project, we will cooperate with both structures and develop joint activities, focused on media and broad audience. We will support public debate on sustainable transport strategy for Prague, through discussions, information stands, bike rides etc.
III. Activities
The project will use special website as the basic information tool – the most accessible for the public, with possibility of often and fast updates.
A Media campaign will be the way how to reach all citizens of Prague. We will issue regular press releases and media updates. In most important cases, we will organize press conferences.
Various types of ‘public events’ will be essential to reach the citizens of Prague personally. For the same reason, we expect cooperation with artists to make outputs of the project more interesting. We will organize information stands in the streets, public debates, workshops, bike rides (together with Auto*Mat network), lectures, etc.By the end of project, we expect presentation of the results, problems and proposals for solutions in the form of exhibition.Within the project, we expect publishing of case studies from other EU cities, ‘successful stories’ and examples of good practice on sustainable development of the cities. (We will use primarily examples from European Cities Campaign partners and partner cities to Prague.)
IV. Cooperation
We will cooperate with other NGOs and citizens’ action groups within Prague – not only environmental ones, cultural heritage associations, various experts, universities’ students. We will pay special attention to attract artists and journalists and to involve them into this project. Cooperation with other groups of European Cities Campaign will be essential. Particular steps in the project will be designed to be accessible for broad public – all social, age and gender layers of the society.