Klima, životní prostředí, příroda: letně-podzimní novinky v legislativě a judikatuře

Dear readers, you are opening the second issue of our magazine in 2025. Before you read our regular sections, let‘s first take a look together at some of the key developments in the field of environmental law.
At the beginning of this year, the Czech government approved a government decree declaring the 27th protected landscape area „Soutok“ as of July 2025. This time, it is the confluence of the Morava and the Dyje rivers near the borders with Austria and Slovakia, also known as the Moravian Amazone. The area of the confluence of the rivers Dyje and Morava is a unique and exceptionally valuable area for its natural and cultural values on a European scale. It is the largest complex of floodplain forests in Central Europe and there are also wetlands protected by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance and wetlands protected by the Natura 2000 system within the European Union.
In the spring of 2025, a group of 35 parliamentarians filed a motion with the Constitutional Court seeking the repeal of Government Regulation No. 55/2025 Coll. on the Soutok Protected Landscape Area. The group claimed that the government regulation was contrary to the constitutional order of the Czech Republic and Act No. 114/1992 Coll. on the protection of nature and the landscape. The complainants objected in particular to the interference with the right to protection of property and the right to conduct business. In its ruling ref. no. Pl. ÚS 17/25 of October 22, 2025, announced on November 5, 2025, the Constitutional Court rejected the proposal by a vote of all 15 members. The Constitutional Court stated that the declaration of the Soutok Protected Landscape Area was made in the manner prescribed by law and passed the proportionality test. Environmental protection by the state should be comprehensive, well-thought-out, and planned. The right to protection of property and the right to conduct business were not affected by the amendment in a disproportionate or otherwise constitutionally inappropriate manner.
However, on November 5, 2025, the Constitutional Court issued another ruling, this time in the first Czech climate lawsuit. The plenary session of the Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the constitutional complaint filed by the Climate Lawsuit Association. Since 2021, the association and other complainants had been seeking administrative courts to order Czech ministries to take effective measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus protect their rights threatened by the climate crisis.
In its decision, the Constitutional Court stated that there is no legal regulation defining the obligations of ministries regarding climate protection. Therefore, the ministries cannot be sued.
The court thus dealt only with the subject matter of the lawsuit itself, not with general questions about whether climate measures are sufficient and whether they violate the fundamental rights of citizens.
However, in its ruling, the Constitutional Court also stated that the parliament’s failure to adopt such legislation may be unconstitutional. „The Constitutional Court’s decision does not prejudge the future success of other types of lawsuits or climate disputes, whether in the field of public or private law.“ the court stated on its website.
The Constitutional Court also stated in its ruling that the obligation to protect the climate stems from the constitution of the state as a whole, not from individual ministries. The ruling can thus be seen as confirmation that the state is obliged to adopt a more ambitious climate policy. It is shameful that the Czech Republic has not yet adopted a climate law.
In February this year, the Chamber of Deputies began debating the government’s draft amendment to the Nature and Landscape Protection Act. The amendment to the Nature and Landscape Protection Act brings several major changes. It is generally known to the public as the amendment that aims to enforce the declaration of the fifth national park in the Czech Republic, the Křivoklát region. However, the amendment also includes a number of other innovations. One of the most important ones is the effort to provide stricter protection for trees and tree plantations growing outside the forest. The amendment also introduces protection for pollinators, particularly in relation to the appropriate maintenance of public green spaces and agricultural areas. The protection of pollinator habitats will thus be a normal part of landscape and vegetation management. The protection of pollinators is a requirement introduced into Czech law for the first time by the EU Nature Restoration Regulation of 2024. The amendment brings a fundamental change to the existing special species protection for endangered species of animals and plants. The aim of the amendment is to ensure more effective protection of species, which will primarily focus on the protection of their natural habitat. However, the amendment to the Act is causing dissenting opinions among the expert community or among municipalities.
However, the amendment to the law was heavily criticized in the Chamber of Deputies by members (further only „MPs“) of both the opposition and the coalition, mainly due to the proposal to declare Křivoklátsko a national park. Some MPs, however, used the draft amendment to table a number of amendments that could have seriously affected the existing regulations on the protection of national parks, and some of which, if passed, could have greatly weakened the protection of national parks. Sadly, some of these amendments were submitted by MPs from the ruling ODS party, while some MPs from opposition parties opposed them. In the end, the Chamber of Deputies did not get to the final approval in the third reading during the summer, and so the legislative process ended unsuccessfully. One of the reasons was that politicians were more focused on the climax of the campaign before the elections to the Chamber of Deputies. However, it should be emphasized that some parts of the unsuccessful amendment should be adopted by the new government, as, for example, the adaptation of the requirements of European Union law (the Nature Restoration Regulation) will have to be implemented in Czech law.
So much of the selected news from our field as I observed it during the summer and autumn of this year. And now I wish you, our readers, an interesting reading in our sections of this year‘s second issue of our magazine.
We would also like to dedicate this issue to the memory of our teacher and colleague, one of the founding fathers of environmental law, Associate Professor Jaroslav Drobník, who passed away on November 13 at the age of 88.