Environment State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth: "We aim to identify new flagship projects on environmental protection and climate action."
Germany and the Czech Republic continue to closely cooperate in the area of environmental protection. Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary in the Federal Environment Ministry and his Czech colleague Vladislav Smrž, Deputy Minister for Environmental Policy, reaffirmed this today at the beginning of the 15th meeting of the Czech-German Joint Commission on the Environment. Saxony and Bavaria are also involved in the commission. The focus of this meeting is cross-border cooperation on national parks and clean air in the border regions. Furthermore, EU climate action and nature conservation issues are being discussed.
Jochen Flasbarth remarked: "Germany and the Czech Republic are able to jointly initiate flagship projects on environmental protection and climate action which go beyond existing legal requirements. The BMUB Climate Initiative also provides new prospects on this. We want to identify specific projects during the talks in Prague."
The State Secretaries praised the well-functioning cooperation between the two national parks Šumava Forest and Bavarian Forest. The national parks represent the largest contiguous near-natural forest in Central Europe. Germany and the Czech Republic want to continue to taking joint responsibility for the protection of this area.
Despite initial progress on air quality, in recent winters air pollution occurred again in the border region with the Czech Republic. With that in mind, Germany and the Czech Republic wish to intensify their common activities for air quality control and plan further measures.