European sustainable development rural actor database


Czech Republic

Coordinate
Language:
Czech

Currency:
Czech koruna
Area:
79,000.00

Population:
10.30

Density:
130.00

GIP:
100

GIP per cap.:
9,745.00

Political regime:
Republic

Head of State:
M. Vaclav Klaus (ODS – Civic Democratic Party)
Head of governement:
M. Mirek Topolanek (ODS – Civic Democratic Party)
Eutropean Union Membership:
2004
National anthem:
Kde domov muj ? (Where is my homeland?)

Administrative organization

Form of State: unitary State.
The national level has legislative powers in all areas.
Interesting ministries: official websites.

  • Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Minister and Deputy Prime Minister: M. Petr Necas.
  • Ministry for Regional Development. Minister and Deputy Prime Minister: M. Jiri Cunek. No mention of rural development.
  • Ministry of the Environment. Minister and Deputy Prime Minister: M. Martin Bursik. No mention of sustainable development.
  • Ministry of Agriculture. Minister: M. Petr Gandalovic. No mention of rural development.

Administrative units

Name

Number

Competences

NUTS 1

NUTS 2

Oblasti

8

NUTS 3

Kraje (regions)

14

Secondary education

Road network

Social assistance

Environment

Public transport

Regional development

Public health

LAU 1

Okresy

77

LAU 2

Obec (communes)

6249

General municipal responsibilities

- Water management and treatment

- Urban heating

- Waste processing

- Management and maintenance of open spaces

- Cemeteries

- Health

- Social assistance and youth policy

- Management of municipal infrastructures

- Management of municipal roads

- Economic promotion

- Environmental protection

- Spatial planning

- Sport

- Fire-fighting and prevention

Responsibilities transferred by the State to certain municipalities

- Education (pre-school and primary)

- Management of municipal transport (urban, road and rail)

- Culture

- Agriculture

- Energy supply

Total public expenditure: 43.9 billion € = 44.1% GDP.
Sub-national public expenditure: 11.9 billion € = 11.9% GDP = 27% total public expenditure.

Rural life

Utilized agricultural area: 44.6% total area, i.e. about 35,234 km2.
Rural population: 26.5% total population.
Labour force in agriculture: 157,000 Annual Work Units (AWU).
Unemployment rate by degree of urbanisation:

  • Densely populated areas: 7.4%
  • Intermediate areas: 8.7%
  • Thinly populated areas: 7.3%

Employment rate by degree of urbanisation:

  • Densely populated areas: 66.6%
  • Intermediate areas: 63.5%
  • Thinly populated areas: 65.6%

Youth unemployment ratio by degree of urbanisation:

  • Densely populated areas: 6.5%
  • Intermediate areas: 6.8%
  • Thinly populated areas: 6.1%
  • Total: 6.5%

Share of organic area in total utilised agricultural area: 7.2%.

Sustainability

The Czech National Sustainable Development Strategy was adopted by the government in December 2004. However, and unless it is official, disposes of a very low implementation. Hence, it doesn’t have any major legislative impact. This can be explained through the description of Czech SDS history, which reveals that sustainable development is still perceived as a concept that is incompatible with the prevailing political emphasis on economic growth and with the concentration on short-term effects .
The content of the Czech SDS provides ten classical sustainable development priorities of unbalanced level of relevance, such as good governance, human development and quality of life, knowledge economy development, economy competitiveness, social coherence, and nature, natural resources and landscape protection. It seems that sustainable development is better understood and supported at local and regional levels.
Environmental protection expenditure in the public sector: 0.3 % of GDP, i.e. 23 € per capita.
Government expenditure on environment protection, in % of GDP: 1.1%.
Government expenditure on environment protection, in % of total government expenditure: data not available for New Member States.
Area protected under the Habitats Directive as a percentage of total area: 9.2%.