Prague (Platts)--27May2008

The Czech Republic will press for more "realistic" EU climate policies as
well as a coordinated pan-EU power transmission system during its EU
presidency in the first half of 2009, Czech Vice Prime Minister Alexander
Vondra said on Friday.

Vondra told a forum of European nuclear energy stakeholders in Prague,
organized by the European Commission, that the Czechs are also very concerned
about the impact of the EU's large combustion plant directive.

This could lead to the shutdown of several of the country's coal-fired
power plants after 2012, something he called a "looming energy threat" to the
Czech Republic.

Vondra, who is responsible for EU affairs, said the EU must "avoid
formulating standards on a purely ethical platform" that penalize member
states' economies.

Vondra cited avoiding "carbon leakage" - industry relocating polluting
plants outside the EU - and phasing in the proposed system of industry paying
for emissions credits in the post-2012 EU emissions trading system as examples
of measures which might be taken as part of the EU's climate policy to cut
emissions.

The Czech Republic is heavily dependent on coal, especially lignite, for
its power supply.

Vondra said the Czechs "firmly believe that the same attention should be
paid to transmission networks as we pay to renewables" in EU energy policy.
It was impossible to transport wind energy from northern Germany to
southern Germany or Italy, for example, because transmission systems were not
coordinated enough.

"We believe there is a need for a kind of dispatcher of the European
transmission system operators to coordinate and exchange on a daily basis,
with direct access to the EU institutions as their advisory body," Vondra
said.
The Czech Republic would also work to make sure nuclear energy had a
place in the EU's strategic European energy review, scheduled for spring 2009,
and the energy strategy document planned for 2012, he said.

The Czech Republic gets about 30% of its power from nuclear and about 60%
from coal.

A coalition agreement with the Green Party is preventing the government
from approving new nuclear power units, although Prime Minister Mirek
Topolanek is strongly pro-nuclear.
---Ann Maclachlan, ann_maclachlan@platts.com