Wpływ Europejskiej Karty Samorządu Terytorialnego na ustawodawstwo samorządów terytorialnych w Republice Czeskiej
Influence of european charter of local self-government on the legislation of territorial self-government in the Czech Republic

Summary/Abstract: Public administration is one of the decisive factors of assurance of external economic and social competitiveness of Czech society as well as - in the projection of its activities into the operatin of the whole public sector - a significant factor of maintaining inner social peace in its framework. In the first place public administration in the Czech Republic is always con- trolled by analogous pressures as public administrations in other countries brought about by globalization, the development of information technology, the evolution of citizens’ participation as well as by the individualization of life, increasing complexity and intermediation of the influence of the individiual on the administration of public affairs and the growth of the possibilities of influencing public opinion. Contemporary public administration systems react to these pressures particularly by decentralization and regionalization of administration, opposing the restrictions of the role of the national state by the development of mediating activities in which the superior role of public administration in the regulation of social life is supplemented with the more general concept of service to citizens as an organizer of social dialogue. Secondly it involves the confrontation with the practical requirements of har- monization of the content and the system of the Czech public administration with the generally recognized requirements imposed on the operation of public administration in European countries, such as the requirements of good governance, public service, accountability to the public and the emphasis on social effectiveness, cost effectiveness and transparency of public admninistration connected therewith. Of extraordinary impact on and significance for the restoration of democratic territorial self-government in particular in Czechoslovakia and subsequently in the Czech Republic was the European Charter of Local Self-Government (“the Charter”), adopted by the Coucil of Europe in Strassbourg on 15 October 1985. In the Czech Republic the Charter contributed to the assertion of the traditional model of European territorial administration in the confrontation with the instrumentarium of onesidedly economically oriented transformation of society of which public administration reform formed a considerable and continuously neglected part. In the Czech Republic the Charter entered into force on 1 September 1999. Its adoption was preceded by a long period of debates and opposing reactions in the course of which the Charter was submitted to the legislative assembly several times even during the federal period. The negative reactions were based mostly on the generally contrary attitude of the decisive part of the political spectrum to decentralization and enhancement of the role of self-government on the one hand and to the broadening of citizens' participation in the administration of public affairs and direct democracy on the other hand. That is why the Charter could be adopted only towards the end of the nineties when these obstacles had been partly overcome. However, the Charter exercised positive influence already on the origin and conception of the historically first restored communal order, viz. the Act No. 367/1990 Coll. (The Communal Act). The topic important at present is the research of the extent at which the prin- ciples of the Charter are really applied in legislative practice. Particularly poor application on local level can be observed in the proportion of direct and repre- sentative democracy. The new Communal Act (Act No. 128/2000 Coll.) extended significantly the possibilities of active citizens participation in the decision- making of communal self-government. The actual exercise of the citizens' legal rights, however, is made difficult by the procedural rules of a number of communal and city councils. Analogously the new codificaion of local referendum (Act No. 222/2000 Coll.) has made the organization of local referenda significantly more difficult by increasing the required number of citizens entitled to voting in the referendum from one quarter to one half of all citizens entered in voters' reg- isters and the consent of more than half of participating voters for the referendum result to be valid. The first amendment of the Regional Act (Act No. 129/2000 Coll.) eliminated the possibility of regional referendum altogether.

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