The government has approved an amendment to the Atomic Act that will help speed up the construction of new nuclear units(www.vlada.cz) Faster construction of new nuclear units as well as easier permitting processes for the introduction of small modular reactors are the main points of the amendment to the Atomic Act, the draft of which was approved by Petr Fiala's government at a meeting on Tuesday, 7 May 2024.

It also approved draft amendments to the laws on the budgetary allocation of taxes, on social services and on sickness insurance, as well as the wording of a completely new law on the Czech Fiscal Bank. And she also devoted herself to helping frost-stricken fruit growers and another anti-bureaucratic package. The draft amendment to the Atomic Act reflects the current situation and new trends in nuclear energy, which mainly concern the use of small modular reactors." It's important. Without this legislative amendment, it would be difficult to build and launch new nuclear units in 2036. In this way, we are also responding to the current technological development, which we can see, for example, in small modular reactors," explained Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who submitted the draft amendment to the government together with the Chairwoman of the State Institute for Nuclear Safety, Dana Drábová. The amendment to the Atomic Act shortens and simplifies the permitting processes for the construction of new nuclear power plants and introduces some new institutes that bring, for example, a higher degree of legal certainty in the issue of regulatory requirements." Everything is aimed at making the permitting processes shorter and more efficient while maintaining all safety standards," the government also discussed the new law on the National Development Bank. Due to its specific position – carrying out activities in the public interest – it should be exempted from the regulatory framework governing the activities of banks as defined by EU regulations. The rules of its activities where they deviate from the general law on banks, and thus from the activities of commercial banks, will be set by a special law." It is a law that is also very important for strategic investments and for the development of the Czech Republic. The proposed amendment will enable the state to invest much better in strategic projects," said Prime Minister Fiala. This is another step in the process of merging the National Development Bank with the Czech Export Bank." By doing so, we are fulfilling our programme statement, in which we pledged to involve the National Development Bank more closely in the financing of local projects, the importance of which we want to strengthen according to Western European models," said Prime Minister Petr Fiala. For example, the state will be able to provide guarantees for some debts of the National Development Bank, which will thus gain easier access to other financial resources from abroad, which can be used to support projects in the form of repayable loan financing instead of the current state subsidies. More information can be found in the press release of the Ministry of Finance. The government has already dealt with the third anti-bureaucratic package. The previous two contained a total of 43 measures aimed at abolishing unnecessary bureaucratic orders and regulations. The third package focuses on so-called self-reporting obligations, which either do not make sense or can be replaced by digitalisation or electronic tools." It includes, for example, the abolition of the obligation to report in writing to the Labour Offices the proportion of persons with disabilities for those who employ more than fifty percent of these persons, the possibility for employers to send certain documents to employees, such as a salary statement, electronically, the abolition of the need to provide a physical photograph when applying for a disability card, and a number of similar things that prove to be unnecessary and burdensome in practice. "The cabinet also discussed ways to help fruit growers, nursery growers and winegrowers overcome the difficult period they found themselves in after up to one hundred percent of their future crops were burned by the April two-week frosts in some areas. Due to this natural disaster, the Czech Republic has already asked the European Commission for support from the EU crisis package in the amount of EUR 100 million, and the Ministry of Agriculture also has a notified Framework Programme for Addressing Risks and Crises in Agriculture, which has currently been notified to the Commission by the end of 2028, to compensate for part of the damage caused to farmers by very adverse climatic events. Another option is to use operating loans through the Support and Guarantee and Peasant Fund to support by reducing the principal of operating loans provided by commercial financial institutions. The Government will discuss specific forms of assistance at a future meeting. Read the press release of the Ministry of Agriculture below. The government also discussed a draft amendment to the Act on the Budgetary Allocation of Taxes. The changes it contains are based on a majority consensus within the Association of Regions of the Czech Republic and concern a gradual increase in the allocation of tax shares of regions in the nationwide gross revenue from shared taxes from existing countries.