The government will discuss the heritage law, one of its promises in culture

Prague - Minister of Culture Daniel Herman (KDU - ČSL) will present to the government on Friday a proposal for the long-awaited new heritage law, one of the main promises of the government in the ministry. The law, which affects many owners of monuments among private owners and public institutions, the shape of public space, its creation, and maintenance, aims to replace the repeatedly amended regulation from 1987. The law is expected to take effect only from January 1, 2018, despite having many critics among conservationists and various professional associations.
The Association of Societies for the Protection and Development of Cultural Heritage (ASORKD) and the Association of Professional Workers in Heritage Care (SPPPP) state that the proposal reduces the scope of heritage protection, does not define the protection of tangible cultural heritage as a public interest, and does not bring the required systemic changes. The ministry generally rejects the criticisms, referring to the fact that the critics have misunderstood the law.
Heritage associations have long criticized the proposed regulation. According to some of its representatives, the prepared law is worse than the one from 1987. "The socialist phrasing of the law has long been removed by amendments, it is technically sound, and it is possible to protect monuments under it. If the state heritage care system is unable to operate according to it, it means that the relevant people have not learned to use it to this day," stated Martin Šerák from the Heritage Society of Český Krumlov earlier.
According to the ministry, on the contrary, the new law precisely defines and emphasizes the public interest in the protection of the heritage fund. In connection with the administrative code and other laws, it allegedly creates an appropriate legal environment for effective care of it and motivates owners of monuments to maintain them.
An important change according to the ministry is "the possibility to compensate costs incurred in connection with the limitation of property rights for owners of properties that are not cultural monuments, but are located in heritage reserves and zones." In practice, this means that even owners of such properties will be able to apply to the state for grants for their care, which is not possible today. The law is said to also allow authorities to respond better in cases where a monument owner neglects their property.
Critics of the proposal have also previously pointed out that the law would remove the possibility for anyone to propose declaring a property as a cultural monument; it should only be declared on the proposal of the ministry. However, in the past, it was often public initiatives that saved properties threatened by neglect or investor interest in demolition.
According to ASORKD, the law proposal does not protect the most valuable and also the most endangered part of the domestic cultural heritage - historical towns. "The law only protects individual cultural monuments; we propose protecting the city as a whole consisting of cultural monuments as well as objects protected only by blanket protection, for which the heritage law has no instrument," states the association. It also demands that the current duality in heritage care be replaced by a single authority with scientific backing but also with the power to make decisions, which would be accountable for its results.