PRAGUE – Czech lawmakers have rejected a proposed bill to reduce dependency on food imports by imposing a quota of locally-produced food to be sold in supermarkets.
Lawmakers in the upper house, or the Senate, dismissed the bill last month. It would have required that the percentage of Czech food sold in stores bigger than 400 sq.
meters would be a minimum 55% in 2022 and rise to at least 73% in 2028. The lower house had originally approved the controversial requirement in January but on Tuesday accepted the upper house's veto.
The bill was drafted by the opposition populist Freedom and Direct Democracy party, which had pushed it through the lower house with the help from the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Andrej Babis and the