Czechia Wants Poland Fined For Ignoring Mine Ban

The Czech Republic has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union to impose a fine of five million euros (about 127.3 million crowns) on Poland for each day that mining continues in the Turów lignite mine near the Czech border.

“The Czech Republic is asking the court to impose a fine of five million euros a day on Poland for failing to immediately stop lignite mining at the Turów mine,” the Court’s Twitter said on Twitter. In May, at the request of Prague, he ordered Poland to immediately suspend all work in Turów. However, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has publicly announced that Warsaw will not comply with the regulation, as this would hurt Poland’s energy security and employment in the region.

The Polish Turów mine supplies coal mainly to the neighboring power plant, and the PGE group, which owns the mine and the power plant, wants to mine there by 2044. The mine should expand to 30 square kilometers and the Poles plan to mine to a depth of 330 meters. However, the Czech authorities warn that the expansion of the mine will endanger the water supply of the inhabitants of the border areas of the Liberec Region. According to them, it will also lead to more noise and dust.

The Czechia and Poland will start negotiations on an intergovernmental agreement on Turów on Thursday. The agreement contains the conditions that Prague wants to fulfill after Warsaw before and after the possible withdrawal of the action filed with the Court of Justice of the EU.

The Deputy Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs and Government Plenipotentiary for Representing the Czech Republic before the EU Court of Justice Martin Smolek said at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Czech Chamber of Deputies last week that the EU Court of Justice should not set penalties in a few weeks. Poland will be given a deadline to comment and at the same time, the Czech procedure should motivate it to negotiate the terms of a future agreement.