Czech Radio: Hladík wants to overturn permits for wind turbines in Germany near the Czech border

Environment Minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL) wants to try to overturn a decision by German authorities to permit the construction of four wind turbines near the Czech border in the Tachov region, close to the Český les Protected Landscape Area. Hladík said the investor split the wind farm into two projects of two turbines each, so German authorities did not require an environmental impact assessment. If a project had included three turbines, one would have been required. Hladík said the Germans had abused their law. Czech Radio reported this today. However, Bavarian Environment Ministry spokeswoman Veronika Seitz said cross-border authorities had been involved in the approval process and the impacts on both the German and Czech sides had been examined and assessed.

The affected municipalities in the Tachov region oppose construction near the Czech border and say German authorities did not inform them about the project. „The investor began planning it four years ago, and to this day nobody has even presented the project to us. We will get absolutely nothing out of it,“ said Dana Lesak, the informal spokesperson for the mayors of the affected municipalities and mayor of Obora.

Seitz told Czech Radio that the impacts on both the German and Czech sides had been examined and assessed, and that there were therefore no harmful environmental effects that would breach public-law regulations. „The result was communicated to the Czech authorities and municipalities in a letter dated 19 August 2024,“ Czech Radio quoted her as saying. Thomas Strauß, co-owner of the investor company, also told Czech Radio that the Czech side had received information.

According to Czech Radio, the wind farm directly borders the Český les Protected Landscape Area, where, according to its head, Tomáš Peckert, all construction is restricted by land-use plans. „We sent our comments in 2020 and only now, three and a half years later, have we received a response, which does not address our comments,“ Peckert said.

Hladík said that both Czech authorities and he personally had repeatedly asked the German side for the project’s specifications, but that the Germans had „ignored“ the requests throughout. He said Czechia was therefore considering formally adding the issue to the agenda of the December meeting of the so-called Espoo Convention (the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context), to which both Czechia and Germany are parties. „We want the Bavarians to reverse their decision and restart the entire permitting process for the wind farm,“ the minister added.