Czech Business Today

The European Council approved the new membership of EESC for the mandate 2015–2020 in October 2015, and I have been honored, after preliminary nomination by the Czech government, to be appointed the member of the Committee. As a representative of the Czech Confederation of Industry and Transport, I have joined the Committee ́s Employers Group, and the specialized Sections NAT and TEN. 

It reflects the profile of my interests – environment, climate change, energy, industry and transport. I recognize EESC as one of the oldest EU institutions, significantly contributing for more than fifty years as a consultative body to the process of EU and their institution building. I appreciate, in particular, its role to make use of the EESC members ́ experience in the EU policies facilitating broad dialogue of different groups of interest. The Union lives through difficult period of time – financial crisis followed by economic crisis, permanent crisis in the Middle East and crisis in Ukraine recently, the gradual loss of the citizens ́ confidence in the EU institutions and the immense wave of immigration in the EU are the most oppressive issues nowadays among many others. In my view, the EU industry, as a backbone of the EU economy, and its contemporary problems require well-organised improvements in the business environment. Resource dependency, immense burden of regulatory obligations, often inconsistent European policies, all these factors contribute to loss of competitiveness, resulting in deindustrialization of Europe. I would like to focus my personal contribution to the EESC activities towards improvement of European industry competitiveness, towards the process of the EU re-industrialization, and above all, enhancing the role of innovation in industrial processes, where environmental protection plays a key role. I want to base my personal contribution to my lifelong experience in chemical and energy sectors and on my professional expertise in the field of environmental protection and climate change policy. 

I started my professional career after graduation from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology as a chemical engineer in the energy sector. After postgraduate studies in the field of material science, investment management, atmospheric science I continued the WHO studies of environmental aspects of urban planning and research in the field of atmospheric science. I took part in building of a new governmental institution – Ministry of Environment after 1990. As a representative of the Czech Government, I took part in activities of UN EEC, executive body of UNEP, as a delegate of UN Commission for Sustainable Development, head of national delegation in COP 1 and COP 2 UN Convention of Climate Change, OECD Environmental Committee, and last but not the least, the President of International Commission for the River Elbe Protection. I was engaged in the field of environmental protection in chemical and oil processing industry in the recent 18 years, and I closely cooperated with the Czech Association of Chemical Industry and CEFIC as a chair of the national panel of the Responsible Care programme. As a representative of the Czech Confederation of Industry and Transport, I took part in BIAC – OECD Environmental Committee, Council of Sustainable Development of the Czech Government, and Council of Waste Management. Recently, I was appointed a member of the National Convent for European Policy. 

I believe that a broad spectrum of experience would help me efficiently to contribute to my work within the specialized Sections NAT and TEN on issues of energy and industrial policy as well as in other relevant EESC activities.

Vladimír Novotný