The Environmental Protection Act adopted two years ago defined that the system of concessions to perform chimney sweeping services would end with this year, to be replaced by the licence system. This should allow to each of the consumers to choose the chimney sweep they want, but the details of the new system are still not known.
Although the Ministry has been announcing the new regulation since the beginning of the year, it seems that the changes to the system will be introduced gradually, and the Minister of Environment Irena Majcen has already given such hints.
The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning explained the need for a transitory period, during which "the concessions of the present performers of chimney sweeping services would be temporarily transformed into licences in case they showed interest in them, and met the necessary conditions". The question what that would mean for those consumers who wish to change their chimney sweep remains unanswered.
The Ministry plans to pass the proposal of the act which would replace concessions with licences into legislative procedure in June. When asked about the phase in which the preparation of the proposal actually was at the time of our question, the answer we received was indicative: "Legislative solutions are in the phase of preparation of formulation of individual articles for the field of products, the performing of chimney sweeping services, chimney sweeping jobs, duties of licence holders, owners of combustion plants, prices, training, supervision."