{"id":17774,"date":"2022-10-25T09:22:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T08:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/?p=17774"},"modified":"2022-10-25T09:22:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T08:22:32","slug":"european-commission-urged-to-uphold-eu-law-at-polands-turow-coal-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/tiskova-zprava\/17774\/european-commission-urged-to-uphold-eu-law-at-polands-turow-coal-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"European Commission urged to uphold EU law at Poland’s Tur\u00f3w coal mine<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Czech and German NGOs filed a complaint to the European Commision today, calling on it to initiate infringement proceedings against the Czech-Polish agreement concerning Poland\u2019s Tur\u00f3w coal mine. The mine is draining nearby water supplies and damaging people\u2019s houses as it operates in violation of EU law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

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Greenpeace Czech Republic activists protest in front of the Ministry of the Environment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

According to the complainants, the agreement ignores the environmental emergency that the Polish mine is causing on Czech territory, and the impacts it is having on Czech citizens. They also criticise the Czech government for agreeing to drop its lawsuit against Poland at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in exchange for a one-off payment and the fact that it hasn\u2019t yet filed another lawsuit against Poland over Tur\u00f3w.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The PGE-operated mine is wedged between communities in Czechia, Germany and Poland, and has already caused water levels in the region to fall more than twice the amount that its flawed Environmental Impact Assessment predicts dropping by 2044.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe understand that Poland needs energy, but there are many ways this can be produced without denying our rights to water and damaging the environment. Water is a giver of life. Coal takes this away. That\u2019s why we are asking the Commission to act now, before it is too late,“ said Milan Starec, member of local environmental group Sousedsk\u00fd spolek Uheln\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe Czech government very quickly and without transparency agreed to a deal with Poland that traded its citizens\u2019 rights and the Czech environment for money. In the process, it also helped PGE get away with persistent violations of EU law at Tur\u00f3w. PGE and the Polish government still don\u2019t understand that they need to respect EU law at Tur\u00f3w,\u201d said Nikol Krej\u010dov\u00e1, campaigner at Greenpeace Czech Republic.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe Czech government has agreed to an illegal situation on its own territory, and forfeited its ability to do anything about it. It tied its own hands behind its back. Now, the only authority that can ensure local people get justice is the European Commission,\u201d said Petra Kalensk\u00e1, lawyer at Frank Bold Society.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cEvery day that Tur\u00f3w continues to operate, the situation for people in neighbouring communities gets worse. In towns like Zittau, people’s houses are being destabilised and the mine is causing cracks to appear in their walls. The European Commission shouldn\u2019t be sitting by, allowing this situation to further deteriorate,\u201d said Prof. Dr. Dr. Felix Ekardt, Chairman of the board of BUND Sachsen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Czech and German NGOs filed a complaint to the European Commision today, calling on it to initiate infringement proceedings against the Czech-Polish agreement concerning Poland\u2019s Tur\u00f3w coal mine. The mine…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":15256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[25],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-17774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energeticka-revoluce","tag-konec-doby-fosilni","p4-page-type-tiskova-zprava"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17775,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17774\/revisions\/17775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17774"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/czech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=17774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}