Czech MEP Edvard Kožušník plans to run more than 1,300 kilometres across the entire Czech Republic.

Czech MEP Edvard Kožušník plans to run more than 1,300 kilometres across the entire Czech Republic. The planned route should take him 43 days. Along the way, Mr Kožušník intends to make more than 300 stops to meet with citizens.

The Czech MEP is a member of an initiative promoting a Single Seat for the European Parliament. Supporters of the initiative claim that the extra cost of Strasbourg – and keeping half of the Parliament’s staff in Luxembourg – is about EUR 180 million each year, and produces 19,000 tonnes of CO2.“Up to 77% of Members of the European Parliament voting on the European Parliament’s budget for 2013 want to change its seat,” says Edvard Kožušník about the unnecessary cost.

“As an MEP, I spend the entire year working in Brussels and Strasbourg and have little time to talk to my constituents back home. That’s why I decided to take advantage of the summer holidays when the European Parliament is not in session to meet with people in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia,” says MrKožušník, explaining the reasons for his journey across the Czech Republic.

With this event, Mr Kožušník also plans to promote a healthy lifestyle and the beauty of the Czech Republic. His run around the Czech Republic is not the first sports initiative of the MEP. In 2009, when he was elected to the European Parliament, he arrived at the first plenary session in Strasbourg on his bicycle.

Mr Kožušník should cross the finish line on 5 September in Prague.

You can follow his journey at

http://on.fb.me/GDHPYL

Official photographs and campaign logos can be downloaded here:

http://bit.ly/17FuTfL

Pictures from the first day of the run can be seen here:

http://bit.ly/18EGjVw