The European Commission plans to withhold EU funds from Poland over an unpaid fine related to a coalmine dispute.
In an unprecedented move, the commission will cut Poland’s EU funds by €15m (£12.6) to recover money Warsaw has refused to pay the European court of justice.
Poland’s government was ordered by the ECJ to pay €500,000 a day for every day it defied an order to suspend lignite mining at the Turów coal mine. The Czech Republic brought the case, alleging that the open-pit mine near the Polish-Czech-German border broke EU environmental law, depleting groundwater supplies and causing dangerous levels of air and water pollution.
The two countries settled the dispute last week, but EU officials say they had no choice but to deduct the unpaid fine from funds due to Poland.
“When performing offsetting, the commission fulfils its legal obligation to collect financial penalties imposed by the court in accordance with its order of 20 September 2021,” said the commission spokesperson for budget, Balazs Ujvari. “In this regard, the commission follows the rules set out in the financial regulation, in the absence of payment by the member state.”
The deduction covers unpaid fines from 20 September to 19 October 2021. The total fine amounts to around €70m and further cuts are expected to follow unless the sum is paid.
A Polish government spokesman, Piotr Müller, told the Polish Press Agency that Poland would use “all possible legal measures to appeal against the plans of the European Commission, the more so that an agreement has been reached between the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic”.
“This is particularly important in the context of the current geopolitical threats from Russia,” he said.
Poland faces losing a further €100m over an unpaid fine of €1m per day for its refusal to abandon a disciplinary forum for judges.
The dispute comes a day over Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, met the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in Brussels, where they discussed the Ukraine crisis. Von der Leyen said they had a “good exchange” on the security situation and Russia’s military build-up. “We also discussed the objective of having a robust judicial system in Poland, in line with EU standards,” she added.
In an attempt to end the long conflict with Brussels over judicial standards, Duda announced last week that he would dismantle the disciplinary chamber of Poland’s supreme court. While this is a key request for Brussels, it is not clear whether his new law will unwind political control of Poland’s judiciary, the root of the conflict with the EU.
