Gov't to discuss church restitution on Monday

?TK |

6 January 2012

Prague, Jan 5 (CTK) - Czech government coalition parties' leaders will meet in the K9 format on Monday afternoon to discuss church restitution, Deputy Prime Minister Karolina Peake (Public Affairs, VV) told CTK yesterday.

They will negotiate about the VV's demand that the payment of financial compensation be delayed by one year or until the economy starts to grow again.

The government discussed church restitution on Wednesday, but interrupted the debate over the VV's demand.

The government will resume the debate next Wednesday.

If the government accepted the VV's demand, churches would probably want to hold new negotiations with the government on the issue.

The VV addressed the Ecumenical Council of Churches (ERC) yesterday.

Its chairman Joel Ruml and VV deputy chairwoman Katerina Klasnova told CTK the meeting was informative.

Ruml said the government, the Culture Ministry or the relevant commissions are a negotiating partner for the ERC.

"We considered it decent to acquaint the churches with our stand personally," Klasnova said.

She will have a similar meeting with Karel Sticha, economist of the Prague Archbishopric.

The VV that says it wants to be a kind of "social safeguard" of the government does not like the state paying out financial compensation to churches at a time when it is doing budgetary cuts over economic recession in the world.

The government coalition parties have agreed with churches formerly on the payment of 59 billion crowns to churches over a period of 30 years starting in 2013. Inflation could raise the sum to 78.9 up to 96.24 billion crowns.

The churches are also to get back 56 percent of the property that was confiscated from them under the communist regime.

The property settlement aims at putting an end to the financing of churches by the state. The transitional period is to last 17 years.

At present the state contributes some 1.5 billion crowns annually to the churches' activities.

The opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) again came out against the financial compensation yesterday.

"This is a luxury that we cannot afford in the current budgetary situation and that we will not be able to afford even in the years to come," CSSD chairman Bohuslav Sobotka said.

He said the CSSD is not opposed to returning the real estate that the communist regime confiscated from the churches.

The CSSD proposes that a public fund into which the real estate would be transferred be created. The funding of the churches, particularly their public benefit activities and heritage maintenance would be financed from the fund's yields, Sobotka said.

Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) has said the government coalition has already agreed with 17 churches on the restitution and that its parameters have been approved on the level of the government coalition.

The VV demands that the financial part of the restitution be adjourned until 2014 while the agreement counts with January 1, 2013.

Peake said another variant is to start paying the financial compensation at a time when the economic situation is more favourable.

Necas said on Wednesday the government's smallest party's proposals are "not entirely convincing."

($1=19.893 crowns)

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Source: http://praguemonitor.com/2012/01/06/govt-discuss-church-restitution-monday

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