LUXEMBOURG (CN) — The Czech Republic argued Tuesday that a century-old Polish coal mine steals its drinking water and pollutes its air, while Poland countered the mine is necessary for its economy and energy grid.
Prague and Warsaw faced off before the European Court of Justice, debating the future of the Turów coal mine, a 19-square-mile open-pit mine opened in 1904, after the two Central European countries failed to negotiate an agreement.
The Polish mine, which sits on the border with the Czech Republic and Germany in an industrial area known as the Black Triangle, has already been found by the European Union's top court to cause damage to the Czech environment. In May, the Luxembourg-based court granted the Czech Republic’s request for an emergency injunction, finding that the mine drew groundwater from Czech residents and ordering Poland to stop mining brown coal at the site.
Poland has refused and the court slapped it with a €500,000 ($586,000) daily fine in September, one of the largest ever given by the court. In response to the fine, some 2,000 Polish miners staged a protest in front of the court.
“If they want to shut us down, we will shut down the EU court,” Wojciech Ilnicki, head of the mine’s trade union, told the gathered crowd. On Monday, the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, fined Poland another 25 million euros ($29 million) for failing to shut down operations at Turów.
At a hearing Tuesday, the Czech Republic argued that Poland had violated EU environmental law by granting a license extension without doing an environmental impact assessment. Geological studies show that continuing to mine in the area will contaminate groundwater and cause soil subsidence. Residents in the neighboring Czech city of Uhelna told the BBC earlier this year that often when they turn on the tap, nothing comes out.
The legal fight kicked off in April after the mine’s operator, state-run energy group PGE, was granted a six-year extension to its mining license at the end of last year. Warsaw has refused to budge, issuing a further license extension until 2044 in the midst of the proceedings.
Environmental rights activists want the mine shut down completely, arguing it contributes to climate change. Poland is the only country in the EU that has refused to sign an agreement to cut its combined net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. The country gets 70% of its electricity from coal.
Warsaw’s refusal to shut the mine has only worsened relations between the country and the EU. Poland is also refusing to adhere to EU law regarding changes it made to its judiciary system in 2017, for which the court has ordered Poland to pay a record-breaking €1 million ($1.2 million) daily fine last month. The EU is threatening to withhold funding from its Just Transition Fund, which aims to help countries wind down their fossil fuel industry, and from the bloc’s 800 billion euro ($927 billion) Covid-19 recovery package.
Poland and the Czech Republic have been trying to reach a bilateral agreement and were negotiating over the mine until the last minute. On Monday, Polish climate minister Anna Moskwa said that Poland was waiting for a written response from the Czech Republic over a deal that would see Warsaw paying Prague to withdraw the complaint from the Court of Justice.
“If we are able to agree...we would withdraw the complaint,” Martin Smolek, the Czech Republic's deputy minister of foreign affairs who represented his country during the proceedings, told reporters after the hearing.
If Prague doesn’t pull out, a ruling on the case is expected next year.
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