Mgr. Richard Vereš graduated from the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University in Brno. He has worked in the largest Czech law firm, has been involved in the non-profit sector and has been active in Ostrava municipal politics for the last ten years. Since 2018, he has been the mayor of the Silesian Ostrava municipal district. He is active in the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic and is Vice President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions.
As the Mayor of Silesian Ostrava, you won the title of Best Mayor for the 2018–2022 election period in the category of urban parts and districts in a competition announced by the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic. Is it just an award? Or is it a challenge?
Every award is a pleasure. Even more so when it is awarded only once every four years and only fourteen mayors in the country receive it, in competition with thousands of other colleagues. But rather than a challenge, I see it as a motivation to continue working because it is clear that the course we have set is the right one and the things we do make sense not only to us but also to people from the outside. The voters also appreciated this in the elections, where we achieved the best ever post-revolutionary result. Our movement now has a majority in the council, even without coalition partners.
Silesian Ostrava is one of the oldest parts of today’s Ostrava, and this history has left industrial and social traces. In what direction is Silesian Ostrava heading these days?
Thanks to the town hall activities in recent years, the face of Silesian Ostrava is changing significantly. Previously, it was perceived as an uninteresting and marginal part of Ostrava. Today, it is the most dynamically developing part of the city. Dozens of development projects are being built or are in the pipeline, especially housing and services. Gaps are being filled in, and an urban structure is being created that will gradually connect to the centre of Moravian Ostrava. We have not forgotten about the infrastructure either, including the blue-green one. Many houses are being built in the peripheral parts of the district. In addition, we are succeeding in eliminating socially excluded localities and attracting new companies to the district, which are creating jobs.
On the other hand, it is true that we are still trying to break free from Ostrava’s industrial past. Representatives of the previous regime planned to turn Silesian Ostrava into a service part of the city. Therefore, they placed a number of unflattering operations here — a crematorium, a municipal waste dump and freight stations. There was also a chemical plant, a coke plant and a steelworks, which is still in operation — today under the name Liberty. Brownfields from former mines are also a burden. The state has still not remediated the contaminated areas, the most important of which are the Odval Heřmanice (Heřmanice spoil heap) and Trojické údolí (Trojické valley). Despite its attractiveness, Silesian Ostrava still has a lot to work on and catch up on. There is still much to do.
The development of the district cannot be done without managerial experience and cooperation. You are active in the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic and in the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, where you are even Vice-President. What does this bring to the district and your managerial position?
Above all, the possibility to see the whole picture. When you have the opportunity to meet colleagues not only from all over the country but also from Europe, you understand that many problems are really marginal and there is no need to worry about them. From a different perspective, some problems simply look different. By exchanging experiences, new solutions can be found and applied. Both organisations then fundamentally defend the interests of local governments at the national and European levels.
For example, a new European directive on wastewater treatment is currently being prepared, the adoption of which, in its proposed form, would mean that Czech cities, towns and villages would have to invest tens of billions of Czech crowns in the renewal of sewage systems in order to meet strict limits that even the central wastewater treatment plant in Prague would not meet. Many cities — Ostrava not excluded — do not even meet the requirements of the current directive. Cities already spend billions of Czech crowns to comply with the current regulation.
Unfortunately, in this particular case, the government was behind the times, and comments on the draft directive were only made thanks to our participation in the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, where the drafting of the proposal was supported, and the activity of the Union of Towns and Municipalities, which produced some very comprehensive documentation describing the specific impacts on local authorities. Thus, the Czech Republic could present a clear negative opinion based on factual data. Indeed, there is no direct effect visible to the citizen. Still, thanks to this, we can save billions of Czech crowns in Ostrava alone, which can be used for more useful things. There are several similar issues that have a significant impact on towns and cities at the European level.
The Union helps local governments develop smart solutions in more areas than just the energy sector. What projects are you preparing in your district?
It is certainly not as if we have just woken up and started to address energy savings. First of all, for many years, we have been carrying out projects to reduce the energy consumption of buildings; we have been weatherising and insulating our buildings, of which we have hundreds, including many blocks of flats. Unfortunately, state support has failed here. Despite meeting all the conditions, we have encountered a lack of funding allocation at the state level for most projects. Thus, we would have had to fund most of the projects ourselves. Still, since these are investments with a return on rent, we eventually financed them through a loan, which we managed to negotiate with a now absurd-sounding interest rate of 0.95% and a fixed rate for the entire repayment period, i.e. 25 years.
We now have energy management up and running. We deal with efficient energy management, remote readings and intelligent sensor systems. And, of course, we are also looking at whether some of our buildings would be suitable for installing renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaics. The Union not only provides support to local governments in this area but, above all, provides them with information about the possibilities and negotiates favourable offers for municipalities with suppliers of these solutions.
Thank you for the interview.
