Students:Regional government group

Basic facts
Most region lies between the ore mountains, the Bohemian highlands and the Žatecká platform. Heights differ between 200 and 950 meter. With 8-9 degree Celsius in average the weather is quit warm and the rainfall with 500 mm quit low. The extensive industry in the past had devasting effect on the environment. Forest died, but now are recovering. Important nature reserves are Černý rybník and Jezerka. Historic monuments are rare because of the open pit mining and of the human waves of expulsion and immigration. Important is the church of Most, the castle Jezeří and Horní Jiřetín, which was once a famous pilgrimage.

Most is one of 7 districts of region Ústí nad Labem. Usti region covers 5,335 km2, accounting for 6.8 % of the Czech Republic’s total area. With approximately 831,000 inhabitants the region ranks fifth, making it the fourth densest area of the Czech Republic. Due to massive lay-offs and industrial restructuring Ústí is the region with the highest unemployment in the Czech Republic. Therefore education and incentives for job creation play an important role.

District Most covers 467 km2, there are only 2 towns with more than 5000 inhabitants: Most (68,000) and Litvínov (27,000). The whole district has 117,000 (2007) inhabitants. Workforce consists of about 60,000 pople, unemployment rate is 15%. The rate dropped faster in recent years than the overall Czech trend. Of job seekers 47% have elementary education and 50% have secondary education. Only 2% of them have an university degree. Most companies are active in the service sector (80%), followed by construction and industry with nearly equal shares. Only 2% are active in agriculture and forestry. The most important companies according to their turnover are active in extracting and processing raw materials.

Regarding the financial situation the city of Most is taken by example. The income of 2011 is expected to be 1,1 billion CZK and expenses 1,5 billion CZK. In 2008, 2009 and 2010 the deficits were 96, 160 and 159 million CZK. In contrast the income from the mining area raised from 300,000 CZK in 2010 to 2 million CZK in 2011.

A recent study analyzed the quality of life in 50 different Czech cities and placed Most on last position.

Political climate in the Most District
The political party Mostečané Mostu controls the city council over the 5 past years. In the last municipal elections in 2010 Mostečané Mostu won 50.7% votes. That means the party holds 26 out of 45 mandates in city council. In fact, there is no opposition in Most and all parties are collaborating. The local media point to above standard reciprocal cooperation of these parties. The party is financially supported by the important local businessman Jiří Zelenka and most of their representatives comes from the Housing Association SBD Krušnohor which administrates 21 781 flat units in Most and Litvínov. More than half of the Most’s population lives in SBD Krušnohor´s flats.

This party also stood at the beginning of another local political party Severočeši.cz which operates throughout Ústí nad Labem region and was registered 14th April 2008 and immediately got 13.2% votes in Ústí nad Labem region election in the same year. Severočeši.cz has not taken a clear position in question of breaking coal limits yet and is successfully avoiding answering it. The influence of Severočeši.cz is increasing and its people are preparing for the next region election in 2012. It already has to senators and many local councilors in many municipalities of Most district.

Sustainable development program for the region Ústí
The strategy for a way to a sustainable development in the Ústí region is described in the document "SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR THE ÚSTÍ REGION 2006–2020". Figures of the strategy of the Usti Region in the Sustainable development program pretended to us are: These requirements consists wide strategies for sustainable development in the region as you see in in this examples. 1) To complete and improve the system of cycle routes in the Ústí Region by 2020. 2) To increase the total area of town centre pedestrian zones and the area of zones with limited traffic access by 2020. The Czech Republic has on the one side a local energy concept for the ÚSTÍ Region and on the other side a national energy plan for the whole of the land. This national energy concept of Czech Republic has special importance for the region because of the in this region located mines and power plants.

The goals for the region Ústí on the local level are: 1) To reduce the area of the Ústí Region suffering from bad air quality to 5.5% of the region as a whole by 2020. 2) To draw up plans for improving air quality in every town and area with bad air quality by the end of 2007. 3) To reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. 4) To reduce particle emissions in t/km2 by 40% by 2020 and NOx emissions in t/km2 by 50% by 2020. 5) To increase the number of public vehicles running on alternative fuels by 2020.

On the national level has the Czech Republic in the year 2001 an energy mix of the following sources: annual electricity generated expressed in kilowatt-hours: 82.25 billion kWh Electricity generation by energy source in the Czech Republic: fossil fuels (oil, coal, etc.): 76.1% Hydro: 2.9% Nuclear power: 20% other (wind power, solar energy, etc.): 1%

And the Energy generation in the Czech Republic in 2010 was:

Brown coal: 63,19% Nuclear power: 30% Renewable energy 6,81%

plans and development strategies
These are overall goals from Ústí on the local level: 1) Improve employability and education of citizens 2) The revitalisation of towns and villages in the Ústí Region with an emphasis on renovating old accommodation, building new accommodation and the reconstruction of cultural and industrial heritage sites in states of poor repair. 3) Improvements in public health 4) Enhancement of the social situation by improving reproductive behaviour, integration of minority groups and limiting the incidence of undesirable social phenomena

The goals in relation to the Administration of public affairs are:

- The stepping up of efforts to engage the public in the planning and decision making process on a regional and local level. - The creation of a system of grants in the Ústí Region to support the activities of NGOs, non-profit-making and other organisations aimed at putting the principles of sustainable development into practice, especially in relation to raising awareness among the public of the environment and sustainable development. - Improving the approach of individual towns and villages to integrated environmental protection. - The creation of sustainable development management to ensure the interconnectedness of the economic, social and environmental area of strategic development documents and to coordinate the implementation of their aims and objectives. - The reduction of debts owed by towns and villages by ensuring that public money is spent in a more efficient way and by using funds from outside sources. These are overall goals are pretended to us from Ústí.

Relation to lobby groups and other governmental units
The Czech Coal Group gave 34 million CZK to welfare projects in 2009. The 130 supported projects make up to 90% of the total amount of projects in Usti region.

Regarding the mining limits the regional government can make proposals. The actual decision is made by Czech government, which depends very much on national energy plans and visions. EU regulations may also be of importance for local decision, especially regarding environmental matters. This could result in going to court. Prosecutor could be neighboring Germany, in particular affected by environmental problems and related economic circumstances.

Because of the close border to Germany, municipalities are involved in many cross-border-cooperation called Euroregions.

Literature
http://www.businessinfo.cz/files/dokumenty/cr_regions_usti.pdf

Politics

http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severo%C4%8De%C5%A1i.cz

http://www.greenpeace.org/czech/cz/news/severocesi-cz/

http://www.mostecane.cz/