EU court: Poland must accept €68.5 million penalty over Turów mine dispute

Yahoo
Yahoo
52m ago
The ruling leaves Poland responsible for the €68.5 million penalty and validates the EU’s method of collecting it through payment offsets.
EU court: Poland must accept €68.5 million penalty over Turów mine dispute
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Key insights

  • 1

    Commission offset upheld: The court confirmed the European Commission could recover the unpaid fine by offsetting it against EU payments to Poland.

  • 2

    Bilateral deal did not erase court order: The court said the 2022 Poland–Czech agreement could not retroactively change or cancel the earlier EU court order and related penalties.

  • 3

    Dispute tied to environmental concerns: The conflict centered on the Turów mine expansion and fears of environmental damage raised by neighboring countries.

A What happened
The European Court of Justice ruled that Poland must accept a €68.5 million penalty stemming from a long-running dispute over the Turów open-cast lignite mine near the border with Germany and the Czech Republic. The court had ordered a halt to mining in 2021 after a Czech lawsuit, and later imposed a €500,000-per-day fine when Poland did not comply. Although Poland and the Czech Republic reached an agreement in 2022, Poland refused to pay the outstanding fine. The European Commission then decided to offset the amount against payments to Poland, leading Warsaw to sue. The court upheld the commission’s action as legal and said the bilateral agreement could not retroactively amend or revoke the court order.

Topics

World & Politics International Affairs Law & Public Safety Courts

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