In accordance with Article 3(2) of Directive 94/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 1994 on the conditions for granting and using authorisations for the prospection, exploration and production of hydrocarbons (1), the Ministry of the Environment hereby gives notice that it has received an application for prior consent for a proposal to establish the Darkov I extraction site for the working of the natural gas deposit associated with the coal seam of Důl Darkov, plant 2, Darkov site (deposit registration number 3070402). The application relates to a polygonal area of approximately 5.08 km2. The area is situated within the cadastral area of the municipalities of Staré Město u Karviné, Karviná-město, Ráj, Karviná-Doly, Darkov and Stonava, in the Moravian-Silesian Region (north-eastern Czech Republic), as delineated on the attached map.

With reference to the Directive referred to in the preamble and Section 24 of Act No 44/1988 on the protection and exploitation of mineral resources (the Mining Act), as amended, the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic hereby invites natural or legal persons holding an authorisation to carry out mining activities (contracting entities) to submit a competing application for the granting of prior consent for the establishment of an extraction site in the area defined above.

The authority competent to take the decision is the Ministry of the Environment. The criteria, conditions and requirements laid down in Article 5(1) and (2) and Article 6(2) of the Directive are set out in full in Czech legislation in Act No 44/1988 on the protection and exploitation of mineral resources (the Mining Act), as amended.

Applications may be submitted during the 90 days following publication of this notice in the Official Journal of the European Union and should be sent to the Ministry of the Environment at the following address:

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. A decision on the applications will be taken no later than 12 months after this period has expired. Further information is available on request from the Geology Department of the Ministry via the email address martin.holy@mzp.cz.

Darkov I

(1)   OJ L 164, 30.6.1994, p. 3, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/1994/22/oj.