Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, together with a government delegation visited Prague on Thursday, February 3, to continue talks on resolving the dispute over the Turów mine. According to the Czech media, an agreement on this issue is possible to be concluded today.
Polish Press Agency also informed that the negotiating team led by Anna Moskwa, the Minister of the Environment, agreed with the Czech partner on the content of the agreement on Turów mine that was approved by the Polish government in circulation on Wednesday evening.
The government spokesman Piotr Müller emphasized that it is still definitely too early to announce the success. “The negotiation teams have been working for several weeks, but the final arrangements must be accepted at the level of the prime ministers. This dispute has been going on for many months, which shows its complexity”, said Müller.
The Czech Republic lodged a complaint to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) against Poland regarding the expansion of the Turów mine at the end of February 2021. At the same time, it demanded the use of the so-called interim measure, i.e. an order to suspend production.
The Czech side believes that the mine expansion threatens the access to water for the inhabitants of Liberec who also complain about noise and dust related to lignite mining. The Polish government did not comply with the order to suspend production.
Polish-Czech talks regarding the Turów lignite mine began in June 2021.
On September 20, 2021, the CJEU imposed a fine of 500,000 euro per day on Poland for not implementing the interim measure and continuing to extract lignite from the mine. The Polish government declared that it did not intend to pay the fine.
Today, the general spokesman of the CJEU announced his opinion on the Polish-Czech dispute over Turów, stating that “Poland violated European Union law by extending the license for lignite mining in the Turów mine by six years without conducting an environmental impact assessment”.
The opinion is an introduction to the judgment and the CJEU may approve it. If the Polish-Czech agreement is concluded, it is almost certain that the Czechs will withdraw their complaint against Poland.
Adrian Andrzejewski