EU advocate general proposes scrapping Poland's penalty for mining at Turów on the Czech border

Juliane Kokott, Advocate General at the European Union’s highest court, today recommended in her opinion that the Court of Justice retroactively cancel the penalty imposed on Poland over lignite mining at the Turów mine on the border with Czechia. The Advocate General based her recommendation on an agreement Poland and the Czech Republic concluded in 2022.

"As a result of the settlement agreement between the Czech Republic and Poland, the penalty imposed in the interim proceedings is extinguished retroactively," Kokott said in a statement today.

Last May, the Court of Justice of the European Union upheld Poland’s obligation to pay a fine for illegal mining at an open-pit mine near the border of the Liberec Region from September 2021 to February 2022. In two judgments, the court confirmed that the European Commission had acted correctly in deducting from Poland’s payments from EU funds the fines previously imposed on Warsaw by the court.

Poland appealed the decision to the Court of Justice. In her opinion today, the Advocate General recommends that the Court of Justice grant Poland’s request. The Court of Justice of the EU is not bound by the opinions of its Advocates General, but follows them in most cases.

"According to the Advocate General, the interim measures were extinguished retroactively as a result of the settlement agreement between the Czech Republic and Poland. The Commission therefore wrongfully offset the penalty payments against Poland’s claims on the EU budget," the statement issued today said.

Poland did not pay the penalty payments owed. According to the General Court, the daily penalty accrued from 20 September 2021 until the case was removed from the Court of Justice’s register on 4 February 2022, after Poland and the Czech Republic had concluded a settlement agreement on 3 February 2022.

Disputes between the Czech Republic and Poland over mining at the Turów mine began in January 2016, when Liberec Region Governor Martin Půta announced that the planned expansion of the Turów open-pit mine near the border of the Liberec Region threatened drinking water supplies in the region. The Czech Republic sued Poland over the expansion of the Turów mine in February 2021 and at the same time requested an order to halt mining. In May of that year, the EU court granted the Czech request.

The Polish government did not comply with the order to halt mining. At the end of September 2021, the Court of Justice of the EU fined the country 500.000 euros per day for failing to comply with its order to stop mining. The penalty eventually reached 69 million euros. Brussels deducted part of the fine from the funds allocated to Poland from EU funds. Polish news channel TVN24 previously reported that Brussels had deducted more than 30 million euros in this way.