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The court also listened to the Czechs’ argument that to keep mining in Turow will likely mean considerable outflows of groundwater from the Czech Republic to Poland. Open cast mines like Turow typically cause such outflows from nearby locations.
Poland promised to build a screen to keep water on the Czech side but its construction will not be completed until 2023. The damage to the water table that will take place by that time is not reversible, the CJEU noted.
The CJEU also dismissed Poland’s argument that shutting down the Turow power plant, which would inevitably ensue once mining is stopped, would pose a threat to the stability of energy supply.
“The electricity network operators are able to balance the electricity network in order to compensate for such unavailability,” the court said.
Czechia welcomed the court’s decision although it does not yet mean that the final verdict will shut down the Turow mine – and the Turow power plant – for good.
"Mining activity not only has a negative effect on the rights
of the citizens at the Czech-Polish border to water as mining affects the groundwater level, but also on the quality of the environment and property of the citizens," Czech Environment Minister Richard Brabec said, according to Reuters.
Poland hinted very strongly it would not comply with the CJEU’s interim measure.
“The Polish government will not take any actions that could jeopardise Poland's energy security,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a statement.
Poland derives around 70% of its electricity from coal- and lignite-fired power plants and only plans to wean itself off the commodity completely by 2049.
Hungary turns down EU's €9.4bn
recovery fund credit line
bne IntelliNews
Hungary has decided at the last minute not to take any loans under the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), meaning that it has had to redraw its recovery fund plans, for which the official deadline was April 30.
Hungary will avail itself of the full amount of grant money available to the country in the framework of the RRF, but would draw the RRF credit line only for project-based financing on a case-by-case basis, cabinet chief Gergely Gulyas said in a weekly press briefing on April 29.
Under the RRF, Hungary could receive HUF2.5 trillion (€6.9bn) in grants and HUF3.4 trillion (€9.4bn) in loans.
The decision follows talks between Prime Minister Viktor Orban and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the NextGenerationEU recovery plan last Friday. There has been no detailed read-out of those talks but according to media reports the Hungarian strongman was told that drawing RRF money would require an overhaul
of the country's deeply corrupt public procurement process.
Hungary has denied an earlier Reuters story that said the Commission was deeply worried about public procurement in the country and that it had demanded reform before
the Orban government could access the new funding line. According to the leaked EU report seen by Reuters, the country's "competition in public procurement is insufficient
in practice," adding that that was linked to "systemic irregularities" that "led to the highest financial correction in the history of (EU) structural funds in 2019".
By contrast, the Hungarian government is painting its decision not to draw the credit line as coming from its commitment to fiscal probity, despite the fact that it has taken out some much more expensive loans from Russia and China in recent years.
"Hungary is among those countries in the European Union that believe the crisis should be managed with as little indebtedness as possible," Gulyas said, adding that the government can still tap the loans until the end of 2023.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban discussed the use of the EU's NextGenerationEU fund with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on April 23 in Brussels.
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