Polish court sides with Czechs, cancels environmental assessment of controversial mine

A Polish court has come to the defence of Czech citizens by overturning the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Turów mine, a controversial Polish open-cast mine near the Czech border.

According to the Polish Administrative Court in Warsaw, the original EIA report for the Turów coal mine – which allowed the mine to obtain a mining licence until 2044 – downplayed the damage caused by mining. The impact of mining activities on groundwater and land is much more serious than the mine operator, the Polish state-owned PGE, claimed.

The Polish court thus confirmed the fears of Czechs, who have long complained about the mine.

Czech citizens represented in local organisations also called for a revision of an existing Czech-Polish agreement, signed two years ago, to resolve the long-running dispute over the Turów mine.

The deal includes financial compensation and measures by Poland to prevent further damage caused by the intensive mining.

“Water is still disappearing from Czech territory because of the Turów mine,” Greenpeace campaign coordinator Nikol Krejčová said in reaction to the Polish court decision. “The Czech-Polish agreement did not prevent this and did not solve anything.”

“The negative impact of mining in the Turów mine on the local population on the Czech side of the border is therefore enormous. Paradoxically, these people are now being defended by the Polish court more than by their own government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala,” she added.

The agreement also aims to ensure that the situation is monitored, particularly with regard to groundwater loss and land subsidence. However, there are problems with the transmission of older data.

“I’m not happy about it myself,” Czech Environment Minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL, EPP) told Euractiv Czechia in a recent interview. “All measurements from the Czech side are public, but from the Polish side, only the data since the agreement was made are published.”

The data collected by the Polish side prior to the conclusion of the agreement was classified as a trade secret.

“I will try to persuade the new Polish Minister of the Environment, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, that we do not see this positively,” Hladík said.

The Czech minister wanted to discuss the issue with his Polish counterpart during last week’s meeting of Central and Eastern European ministers in the Czech Republic. However, the Polish minister did not attend.

Both Hladík and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS, ECR) are convinced that the Czech-Polish agreement has improved the situation and that it was necessary. However, Fiala confirmed he would look into the Polish court ruling and discuss the issue with his Polish counterparts.

(Aneta Zachová, Barbora Pištorová | Euractiv.cz)