On September 20, the Court of Justice of the European Union said that Poland must pay the European Commission €500,000 for each day it continued to extract lignite at the Turow mine. This decision was made amid a shift to a green energy system in the EU that presupposes a move away from coal.
Warsaw has already said the court order is an interference in the country's security matters and refused to pay the penalties. The Polish government stated that the EU could not interfere in matters related to the security of member states. This also includes energy issues. It should be noted that some 48% of Poland’s energy comes from hard black coal and 17% from softer and more polluting lignite, or brown coal. Another 25% comes from various renewable sources and biofuels. At the same time, the country is trying to close coal mines whenever possible. At the beginning of June, the Polish authorities, at the request of the EU, closed the Belchatow coal-fired thermal power plant.
The court's decision followed a request from the Czech Republic, which is locked in a dragging dispute with Poland over the Turow open-pit mine that sits next to their shared border. The Czech government says the mine is draining groundwater from communities and causing other environmental harm to Czech citizens.
