EU court confirms penalty imposed on Poland over mining at Turów mine is valid

Brussels, 22 January (CTK correspondent) - The European Commission acted in accordance with EU law when it deducted penalty payments previously imposed on Poland by an EU court from Poland’s instalments from EU funds. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on this today. The case concerns lignite mining at the Polish Turów mine on the border with the Czech Republic. According to the court, the settlement agreement concluded between the Czech Republic and Poland did not retroactively cancel the periodic penalty payments imposed as an interim measure.

In May 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed 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 instalments from EU funds the fines previously imposed on Warsaw by the court.

Poland appealed this decision to the Court of Justice. In her opinion last year, the court’s Advocate General proposed that the court grant Poland’s request. The Court of Justice of the EU is not bound by the opinions of its Advocates General, however, and although it follows them in most cases, this time it ruled the other way.

“A judge hearing an application for interim measures who has imposed a penalty payment may reconsider their decision and, if necessary, cancel its effects only for the future. They cannot, however, cancel or amend it retroactively,” the EU court said in a statement.

“The conduct of the parties to the dispute, including the conclusion of a settlement agreement, therefore cannot result in a retroactive amendment or cancellation of a decision imposing such a penalty payment,” it added. The agreement concluded between the Czech Republic and Poland in 2022 therefore could not cancel Poland’s obligation to pay penalty payments that had already fallen due.

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 mine threatened drinking water supplies in the Liberec Region. The Czech Republic sued Poland in February 2021 over the mine’s expansion and at the same time requested an order to halt mining. The EU court granted the Czech request in May of that year.

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 halt mining. The penalty eventually amounted to 69 million euros. Brussels deducted part of the fine from the amounts allocated to Poland from EU funds. Polish news television TVN24 previously reported that Brussels had deducted more than 30 million euros in this way.