On 9th June, Vladimir and me, Judit, YEE's two EVS volunteers, had the possibility to participate in the international conference "State and outlook of the environment in the Czech Republic and the EU" which was held in the beautiful plenary hall of Wallenstein Palace, the Parliament Senate of Czech Republic, in the center of Prague.

The conference was organised with the participation of the European Environment Agency (EEA) which is an agency of the European Union. Their task is to provide sound, independent information on the environment. They are a major information source for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and also the general public.

In the first section of the program, the Executive Director of EEA, Prof. Hans Bruyninckx, emphasized the importance of sustainable development and the need of being balanced at the level of environment, the economic and social pillars. He also mentioned the need of focusing on the efficiency of the economical resource usage, the biodiversity and the low carbon future which can be reached by international work. For this, the policy makers have to be well-organised and need to create strong domestic policies.

Then, Mr. Bruyninckx elaborated the environmental situation of the Czech Republic compared to other EU member countries. We learned that there are many organic farms in the Czech Republic, but as a result, this has led to high nitrate content in the water and big green house gas emissions. As for the energy consumption, even though the country has to improve its renewable energy usage and the resource use efficiency, still, their bus and train use is really high compared to other EU countries. The Czech Republic waste production is below the EU average, however, recycling is still a challenge.

Later, the Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic, Mgr. Richard Brabec, reflected on what we heard. He said the quality of surface water has improved significantly due to the new policies adopted over the last 20 years. Nevertheless, they still have a lot to build on when it comes to water quality. The country's biggest environmental problem is the air quality which is one of the worst globally, especially in the northern and southern Moravian industrial cities where heating plays a major role. Mr. Brabec emphasized the importance of the great increase of Eco farming, which is more than 12% of the whole agricultural industry and he also stated that the fragmentation of countryside has decreased in the last two decades.

After the coffee break, the second section of the conference continued with the legislation of environment and the details of the air pollution in different regions in the Czech Republic.

All in all, it was a great honor to be a part of this conference, since by the participation of the European Environmental Agency, we could hear and get to know independent and important information on the environmental situation of the country where we are currently living.

Judit Suveges