Summary of newsmakers of the previous day – 20.4.2006

State wants punishments for Libčeves. Exceptionally

A case of illegal import of waste in the Czech Republic has the first accused. Policemen pursue six persons in total. Surprisingly. “Generally, policemen are not willing to prosecute ecological crimes. They prefer to chase murders or thieves”, Michal Bernard from a non-governmental organization Ecological legal service pointed out in an interview for the daily Aktuálně.cz. According to Bernard the fierce police action happens thanks to coming elections. A big cause happened from the illegal import of waste and exceed from an ecological problem into a political one. The cause is often talked over in TV, newspapers; the Premier Paroubek (ČSSD) – due to import of waste, especially from Germany – attacked several times the Minister of Environment, Libor Ambrozek (KDU-ČSL).

Anonym: Opavia bakes from poisoned raw-materials

An anonym in a letter, which the business manager of firm Opavia-LU received last week, did not threat with poisoning of products to the firm but announced that some raw-material, which Opavia-LU uses, had already been poisoned. The case is investigated by the police Section for detection of organized crime, however, it conceals more detailed information. The threatening letter is said to be received by two food firms; the first is Opavia-LU, the second the police does not want to disclose. “The anonym wrote that some charges of malt extracts which are used in production of the firm Opavia, are intentionally contaminated with dangerous poison”, Petr Cibulka, a state representative, said. The writer did not lay any claims, he/she only informed about poisoning of raw-materials. For it he/she is in threat of as many as fifteen years of prison.

Police accused six people for import of waste from Germany

The police have accused six people due to import of German waste in Libčeves and Postoloprty in Louny region. Five Czech people and one German are in threat of as many as five years in prison for breaking of rules for treatment with waste. According to the police the import of waste from Germany into the Czech Republic was illegal. Carriers broke rules for treatment with waste and also some the European Union regulations. Three from the accused carried the waste in Libčeves. Other in Postoloprty, from where they organized a distribution of German rubbish in dumping places in Tušimice and Jirkov in Chomutov region. Herewith they made a bid for its legalization.

EU is still far from intended use of biofuels

The European Union lag behind its intentions in use of alternatives to oil and petrol. Bio-fuels satisfied only 1,4 percents of the total consumption of fuels in “twenty five” last year, far from the “two-percent” aim for the year 2005. The bio-fuels consumption should grow to quadruple, 5,75 percent, to the year 2010. While in the production of bio-oil the EU had a leader position in the world, however, in fast-growing world production of bio-ethanol it lags significantly behind Brazil and the USA. Snag is that fuels from sugar beet and sugar cane, corn and rape can not still compete with classical fuels, even in the situation when the price for a barrel of oil exceeded 70 dollars. The barrel of bio-oil is by about 60 euro more expensive than a barrel of oil; bio-ethanol would become able to compete as with 90 euro for barrel.

Source: Agris, 21.04.2006