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Czech Republic wants to continue negotiations over Turów mine

The Czech Ministry of Environment offered the Polish side to resume negotiations on the Turów mine. A spokeswoman for the ministry, Petra Roubíčková, said that she has the support of representatives of the coalition that is negotiating the formation of a new Czech government.

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The proposal to resume negotiations is a response to the appeal of local government officials from the Liberec region published on Wednesday, who called on the ministers of the outgoing Czech government to continue negotiations with Poland. They persuaded them that they could not wait two or three months for a new cabinet to be formed after the elections.

“In recent days, we have held talks with coalition parties, mainly with ODS (Civic Democratic Party ) and STAN (Mayors and Independent Movement), to agree with them that they support the continuation of negotiations with Poland,” a spokeswoman for the ministry told the ČTK agency.


According to her information, the ministry received such support. She also said that the ministry was coordinating all steps with the local government in Liberec and was now waiting for a response from the Polish side.

Martin Puta, the governor of the Liberec country, quoted by the CTK, said that the Polish side was “ready to negotiate”. He referred to talks with the Minister of Climate, Michał Kurtyka, and the Marshal of the Lower Silesia Province, Cezary Przybylski. According to representatives of the Czech local government, the conclusion of an agreement with Poland is more important than the subsequent disputes before European courts.

According to them, the failure of the negotiations may mean that the local government will ask the government to finance a system monitoring the impact of the Polish mine on the natural environment in the Czech Republic. The authorities in Prague should also ensure access to water in municipalities directly adjacent to the mine.

Polish-Czech negotiations regarding the Turów mine started in June. After 17 rounds of negotiations with representatives of the ministries of environmental protection and foreign affairs, as well as experts and representatives of local governments, as well as mine management, Minister Kurtyka announced on September 30 that the talks ended in a fiasco. According to the information from the Czech side, no agreement was reached on the duration of the contract. The Polish side criticised the inability to terminate it.

The Czech Republic brought a complaint to the Court of Justice of the EU against Poland in the case of the Turów lignite mine in February this year. They also applied for the so-called applying interim measure, a mining ban. The complaint was submitted in connection with the expansion of the mine, which, according to Prague, threatens the access to water of the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts. They also complain about noise and dust from lignite mining.

In May this year in response to the Czech Republic’s request, the CJEU ordered the immediate suspension of coal mining in Turów. The Polish government announced that the mine would continue to operate and started talks with the Czech side. On September 20, the European Court decided that Poland was to pay the European Commission EUR 500,000 per day for not implementing interim measures and not stopping the extraction of lignite in the mine.

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