After the Friday talks, we have made some progress with the Czech side on Turów, but the situation has not been clarified yet, and the talks will be continued next week, both on the political and expert level, said Paweł Jabłoński, deputy Foreign Minister.
‘Solidarity’ to strike against CJEU decision on Turów mine
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Mr Jabłoński was one of the people who held talks on Friday in Prague, Czech Republic, on the crisis that arose around the operation of the Turów lignite mine. He stressed that Poland wanted to maintain “very good relations with the Czech Republic.”
“We are partners within NATO, the EU, as well as in a number of other projects, including the Visegrad Group. We believe that if we argue, we should argue in a way that is based on mutual trust,” said Minister Jabłoński, stressing that the Polish side had adopted such an approach from the very beginning.
When asked if the Czech representatives showed good faith over reaching the agreement with Poland, he stated that the Polish side assumed the Czech side had such intentions as well.
“Unfortunately, there are situations that call this good faith into question. I am aware that in a situation when parliamentary elections are approaching in the country [in the Czech Republic, on October 8-9], it may be tempting from a political point of view to delay some matters,, it is natural in politics,” said Mr Jabłoński, adding that although he understands this mechanism, he still considers it wrong.
As he added, he believes that the priority should be an effective and substantive solution to this matter, which has been articulated to the Czechs.
“If the Czech side is willing to end this matter as planned at the beginning, it should respond to it very soon. We count on that very much,” he concluded.
The CJEU decided on Monday that Poland is to pay a daily penalty of EUR 500,000 to the European Commission for not implementing interim measures and not stopping lignite mining at the Turów mine. After this decision, the Polish government’s spokesman Piotr Müller announced that the Polish government would not close the mine.