(in Czech)

The Czech Government has approved (2 March 2009) a proposal from the Ministry of the Environment to amend the Act on the right to information on the environment – enabling the public to gain free access to spatial information (maps).

The amendment aims to transpose into national legislation the requirements of the EU Directive 2007/2/EC establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE Directive). The text of the Czech Act on the right to information on the environment (no. 123/1998 Coll.) will thus be extended to a relatively independent field: the one governing the conditions for the development and provision of spatial data.

Rut Bízková, the Czech Deputy Minister for the Environment, commented, "People have a right to know about the state of the environment and to get maximum information as simply as possible.”

"The active provision of information, when possible, is among the important principles laid down in the Act on the right to information on the environment, as well as in the Aarhus Convention to which the Czech Republic is a party." said Deputy Minister Bízková.

Key Points

• Citizens will not need to use any specific application to access the free-of-charge maps.
• Access to spatial data can be restricted or denied for motives of security threats, privacy protection or other public interest reasons (e.g. no accurate map data on the occurrence of endangered animals will be made publicly available).
• To facilitate their handling by users, each map will have to comply with certain technical parameters. The map searching and browsing through the Geo-Portal will be entirely free. Charges will be made for download, analysis as well as other specific actions.

Related Information

Czech Geo-Portal (in Czech)

Czech Public Administration portal