Greenpeace protests against Czech energy policy outside ministry

They cordoned off the imposing building from the 1930s on the Vltava embankment with a ribbon for about half an hour.

"We tell the bureaucrats that a coal deposit has been uncovered beneath their building, that they will move away from it, that the building will be torn down and that a new mining space will be opened on its site," Lenka Borakova, spokeswoman for the Greenpeace Czech branch, told CTK.

"It may seem strange that we want to be pulling down such a beautiful building, but it is necessary to realise that the lifting of the coal mining limits would result in the pulling down of the 800-year-old Horni Jiretin with 2000 inhabitants," she said.

The Greenpeace activists handed material against the new energy concept to ministry spokesman Tomas Bartovsky.

He told CTK that the ministry is not opposed to discussion on the concept, adding that it is not to be reduced to lifting mining limits only.

"The (concept) update is much more comprehensive and it embraces both sources and energy networks, the environment and education," Bartovsky said.

He said the lifting of limits does not mean that coal will automatically start to be mined. This would only happen if disputes with the inhabitants of the municipalities concerned were solved.

Bartovsky said the new energy concept "is a distinct step towards a low-emission and safe energy industry."

Greenpeace protested against the concept that also counts with the construction of new nuclear power units one month ago when two activists climbed up the government seat and hoisted a poster on its roof.

Two activists stayed there for three hours and they only descended the building when ordered by the police.

Greenpeace says it will continue staging protests against the new policy in the weeks ahead.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz