<br>Train station in Brno back to point zero – there will be an evaluation of options

Brno – The European Commission (EC) requires the Czech Republic to process and evaluate alternative solutions for the reconstruction of the Brno railway node (ŽUB)1 within the framework of the Transport Operational Programme. This primarily means that the location of the station and the multi-billion contribution from the EU for this project are not yet decided. Under the supervision of the EC, two main variants will be compared.
For almost four years now, the civic coalition "Station in the Center" has warned that one of the conditions for co-financing from EU funds is to present a fair comparison of possible variants. However, our serious and repeated warnings based on standard conditions of European financing have not been taken into account in the slightest. Meanwhile, massive financial resources have been spent on preparing the project worth tens of billions. Only the EC itself enforced this condition during the discussion of the Transport Operational Programme.
Now it is essential for the Ministry of Transport and the Brno city hall to realize the seriousness of the situation. We must approach the comparative analysis completely seriously and promptly so that the chance to obtain European funds for ŽUB in the current budgetary period until 2013 remains intact.
Until all the EC's conditions (including public support) are met, no financial contribution from European funds can be expected. For this reason, the civic coalition explicitly calls on Mayor Roman Onderka and the Brno CSSD to reconsider their current approach. The only reason why the CSSD decided to support the postponed variant of the ŽUB reconstruction – despite its evident disadvantages – is the alleged easier financing from the EU. However, this myth has now fallen due to the EC's explicit demand for an analysis.
Petr Machálek, director of Hnutí DUHA, said: “The coalition 'Station in the Center' has endlessly reminded that financing the project from the European Commission has clear and known conditions in advance. Among other things, the assessment of variants and public support. A larger part of the leadership of the city of Brno, led by Mayor Onderka, has so far ignored these facts. Hopefully, a substantive discussion on the specific parameters of both variants will finally take place, and the more advantageous one will be chosen.”