Publication details
Legal Instruments for Securing Critical Raw Materials in the Czech Republic: A Path to a Broader Regulatory Toolbox?
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Peer-reviewed scientific article |
| Magazine / Source | ČESKÉ PRÁVO ŽIVOTNÍHO PROSTŘEDÍ : ČASOPIS ČESKÉ SPOLEČNOSTI PRO PRÁVO ŽIVOTNÍHO PROSTŘEDÍ |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://www.cspzp.com/casopis/legal-instruments-for-securing-critical-raw-materials-in-the-czech-republic-a-path-to-a-broader-regulatory-toolbox/ |
| Keywords | Critical Raw Materials Regulation; critical raw materials; strategic projects; Czech mining law; permitting procedures; spatial planning; local self-government; expropriation; energy transition; raw material security |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The EU Critical Raw Materials Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252) marks a structural shift in the governance of mineral resources in Europe. Rather than treating mining primarily as a national industrial policy issue, the Regulation reframes critical and strategic raw materials as a common concern of the Union, to be secured through binding quantitative targets, streamlined permitting and coordinated exploration and monitoring. This article examines how the Czech legal order can respond to these requirements and which legal instruments – beyond expropriation – will be decisive for their effective implementation. The analysis proceeds in three steps. First, it outlines the main obligations stemming from the Regulation, with particular attention to strategic projects, timelimited permitting, one-stop shops, national exploration programmes and monitoring duties. Secondly, it analyses the Czech framework for mineral resources, focusing on the concepts of “critical minerals” and “deposits of strategic importance”, on fasttrack procedures in mining and mining-related legislation, and on the relationship between mining permits, environmental law and judicial protection. Thirdly, it explores the role of spatial planning and local self-government in managing mining projects, including the potential and limits of planning agreements and benefitsharing mechanisms. The article argues that expropriation can only be understood as a subsidiary, last-resort instrument within a much wider regulatory toolbox. Future Czech implementation of the Regulation will be judged less by the formal possibility to expropriate and more by the capacity to integrate exploration, planning, permitting, environmental safeguards and local participation into a coherent, predictable and EU-compatible system. |
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