Czech and Saxon officials to speed up reaction to reports of “cross border odours”

The Czech environment minister, Richard Brabec, has reached agreement with his counterpart from the German state of Saxony, Thomas Schmidt, on how to deal with bad smells evidently emanating from chemicals plants on the Czech side of the Krušné hory mountains that are bothering residents of Saxony. Speaking after a meeting in Prague on Thursday, the two said Saxon officials would be quicker in informing their Czech colleagues about such odours. For their part, the Czechs will send inspection teams to collect air samples more promptly. A Czech official said 19 complaints had been received so far this winter but that each time inspectors had visited the scene the problem was no longer in evidence.

Author: Ian Willoughby