The 17th round of negotiations on the Turów mine in the Czech Republic ended in failure. The Polish and Czech parties have not agreed on the final form of the agreement regarding the disputed mine and the claim that the Czechs have filed with the Court of Justice of the European Union.
According to information obtained by Energetyka24 (the portal is not known to be on the current government's side in politics), during the talks, the Czechs assumed a position that showed that they did not care about finalizing the negotiations and agreeing on the final version of the contract. The Czech side had, among others prolong the discussion, submitted irrational comments to the content of the contract and raised the rigors of the negotiated contract to unacceptable levels (the Czechs wanted, for example, that the contract could never be terminated under any circumstances).
On Thursday, September 30, in the evening hours, the talks were cut off. The immediate cause was the Czech party's demand that the contract remain in full force and effect for the duration provided by it, even after termination. This is an absurd postulate that would prevent Poland from countering the potential abuse of rights under the document by the Czechs. Prague did not want to agree to the concessions proposed by the Polish negotiators, consisting of the binding of certain parts of the contract even after termination (these included, among others, regulations on groundwater monitoring). Faced with this attitude of the Czech Republic, the talks ended in a fiasco.
“Poland was ready to make huge concessions. We were determined to end these talks during the current session,” a source familiar with the case told Energetyka24.
"We came to Prague with a very good offer, which contained specific amounts of money and solutions for the inhabitants of the Liberec Region. They would allow for a long-term settlement of the dispute with our southern neighbors, and would also strengthen the ecological safety in the region (...). The biggest loser of today's decision to reject the offer is the local community on both sides of the border," - said the Polish Minister of Climate and Environment, Michał Kurtyka, quoted by the Polish Press Agency.
