Europe to cut funds for Poland over unpaid fine, in EU first
Warsaw will be docked money for refusing to close a coal mine
The European Commission said Tuesday it will take the unprecedented step of cutting EU money earmarked for Poland to collect a fine Warsaw racked up for refusing to close a coal mine.
The EU executive has informed Poland of its decision, which will happen next week, a commission spokesman, Balazs Ujvari, told AFP.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said Warsaw would use "all possible legal means to appeal against this", Poland's PAP news agency reported.
The cut will amount to nearly €15 million.
The total unpaid fine amounts to around €70 million including interest, according to an AFP calculation.
The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) hit Poland with the €500,000 a day fine last September for refusing to comply with an order to close its Turow mine producing lignite, or brown coal.
Poland's neighbours, the Czech Republic and Germany, complained of environmental damage the mine caused, affecting groundwater levels and creating dust and noise.
Poland last week signed a deal with the Czech Republic to end the dispute over the mine, but that did not erase the CJEU fine, which Warsaw had steadfastly said it would not pay.
"From the very beginning, Poland emphasises that the decisions taken by the CJEU had no legal or factual basis," Muller said.
"They go beyond the EU treaties and violate the treaty guarantees for energy security," he said.
Ujvari said the levied amount covering the period September 20 to October 19 would be recovered from Poland's EU funding. That equates to €14.5 million plus interest, which takes it close to a total €15 million.
By tapping Poland's EU funding, "the commission fulfils its legal obligation to collect financial penalties imposed by the court," he said.
Poland has been hit with another CJEU fine, of one million euros per day, for refusing to suspend a national Supreme Court chamber contested by Brussels.
There, too, the commission has warned it will recover the fine amount - currently over €100 million - from Poland's EU funding if it goes unpaid.
Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, has proposed a law to scrap the Supreme Court chamber in hopes of drawing a line under the dispute with Brussels, which views the body as undermining judicial independence and rolling back democratic norms.