Poland incurred the fine for refusing to shut down a contentious lignite mine near the Czech border, the state PAP news agency reported.
"The Commission has informed Poland that it would proceed with the offsetting of payments for penalties due under case C-121/21 Czechia v Poland on Turów lignite mine," the European Commission’s spokesman Balazs Ujvari said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The offsetting is for penalties covering the period 20/9/2021-19/10/2021," the statement added.
Brussels will be withholding some EUR 15 million to cover the fines for this period, EU officials told reporters, according to the Reuters news agency.
"The Commission will proceed with the offsetting after 10 working days from this notification," Ujvari also said, as quoted by Poland's PAP.
Poland to appeal: gov't spokesman
Meanwhile, Piotr Müller, the spokesman for the Polish government, told PAP that by refusing to close down Turów, Warsaw had sought “to protect the country’s energy security and the stability of employment in the power sector.”
He added: “This is especially important in the context of the current geopolitical threats from Russia.”
Müller also said that "in Poland’s view, the rulings by the European Court of Justice regarding Turów have no legal or factual basis, overstep European Union Treaties, and violate energy security guarantees enshrined in the Treaties.”
Müller added: “Poland will use the available legal measures to appeal against these plans by the European Commission. This is especially because the Polish and Czech governments have reached an agreement on the matter.”
Polish-Czech deal
The Czech Republic has withdrawn its legal complaint against Poland from the European Court of Justice after Warsaw paid the agreed compensation in the dispute over the lignite mine, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced last Friday.
A day earlier, the two neighbours signed a deal to end the long-running dispute over the open-cast mine in southwestern Poland near the Czech border.
Under the deal, Poland undertook to pay the Czech Republic EUR 45 million (around USD 51 million) in compensation for environmental damage caused by the expansion of the mine on the Polish side of the border, officials told reporters.
Poland also promised to upgrade infrastructure and build a protective underground barrier to prevent water levels from dropping, news media reported.
Poland's Morawiecki said the agreement could help open a new chapter in bilateral relations.
The Czech government last year filed for an injunction with the European Court of Justice, saying the Turów mine was draining groundwater away from surrounding areas and harming Czech citizens.
The European Union's top court in September ruled that Poland must pay a EUR 500,000 daily fine to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, for defying an earlier order to halt operations at Turów.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP
