President Zuzana Caputova vetoed the Environmental Protection bill on Tuesday, TASR learnt from her spokesperson Martin Strizinec on the same day.
In the President's view, the legislation disrupts the environmental protection and hence tramples the constitutional right to a favourable living environment. She added that there is a significant risk of longstanding adverse impacts on nature that might be hard to reverse.
The head of state also objects to the fast-tracked procedure in which the bill was approved, as there was no state of emergency to justify such an approach. "The President is convinced that the growth of trees in the country cannot be considered a state of emergency that happened suddenly and not as a result of the usual course of events," said Strizinec. The President also fails to see the direct link between looser regulation of tree felling and the protection of people from dangerous bear encounters, particularly when a portion of the bill concerns the cutting of trees in residential areas.
(TASR)
