Poland refuses to halt disputed coal mine despite EU court penalty
21 Sep 2021
Poland vowed to keep its disputed Turow coal mine running on Monday despite being hit with a order to pay a 500,000 euro ($585,550) daily penalty to the European Commission for defying an earlier court ruling to halt operations.
Europe's top court, the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), ordered the penalty on Monday.
It followed a request from the Czech Republic, which is locked in a dragging dispute with Poland over the Turow open-pit mine that sits next to their shared border. The Czech government says the mine is damaging its communities.
The mine, which produces lignite, or brown coal, has been operating for more than a century, but has recently expanded further towards the Czech border.