Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the head of the Czech government, Petr Fiala, signed an intergovernmental agreement on the operation of the Turów lignite mine on Thursday, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland announced on Thursday.
Polish-Czech talks regarding the Turów lignite mine began in June 2021 after the Czech side brought a complaint to the Court of Justice of the European Union against Poland regarding the extension of the mine. At the same time, Prague demanded that mining in the mine be suspended as the so-called interim measure.
On September 20, 2021, the CJEU imposed a fine of 500,000 EURO on Poland per day for not implementing the interim measure and continuing to extract lignite from the mine. The Polish government declared that it does not intend to pay the fine.
"The agreement stipulates that the condition for the withdrawal of the complaint is the transfer of funds," the Czech Prime Minister informed at a joint press conference in Prague with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
"As soon as the funds are transferred, the Czech Republic will withdraw the complaint. We are prepared for that," he said. "And all this will take place within a few hours" - he added.
Poland will pay EUR 35 million in compensation. The PGE Foundation will provide EUR 10 million to the Liberec region, Czech PM said on Thursday. EU supervision over the duration of the contract has been agreed for 5 years.
