The Czech Republic insisted on compensation worth 50 million euros ($56.7 million) in a revised deal with Poland on the disputed Turow mine, Czech Environment Minister Anna Hubackova said on Saturday.
Prague and Berlin complain the open-cast brown coal mine near their border with Poland is affecting groundwater levels and increasing dust and noise in the area.
The European Court of Justice ordered Poland to shut the mine in May 2021 then imposed a daily fine of 500,000 euros ($567,000) in September 2021 for failing to do so, which Warsaw has refused to pay.
Hubackova, in office since December 2021, met her Polish counterpart Anna Moskwa in Warsaw on Tuesday to try to break the deadlock.
“Three days have passed and an updated draft agreement with Poland on Turow is ready,” Hubackova said in a tweet.
She told the Czech news agency CTK that the Czech side insisted on the 50 million euro compensation, while Poland was willing to pay 40 million euros.
Hubackova added the Czech government would discuss the revamped deal on Wednesday and that talks with Poland should resume “ideally by the end of January.”
Poland said it would go on extracting lignite, a low-quality brown coal, at Turow as a closure would put the country’s energy security “at risk.”
The mine fuels a power station providing around 7 percent of Poland’s electricity.
Poland’s largest energy group PGE, which owns both the mine and the plant, plans to expand the mine and extract coal there until 2044.
People watch a light installation in Warsaw, Poland, Dec. 7, 2021. Every year the Old Town in the city is decorated with thousands of objects in different colors of lights for the Christmas season.Photo:Xinhua
