es cs de en fr it hu pl pt sk


The Turów open-cast lignite mine is located on Polish territory, close to the borders of the Czech Republic and Germany. In 1994, the competent Polish authorities granted PGE Elektrownia Bełchatów S.A., now PGE Górnictwo i Energetyka Konwencjonalna S.A. (‘the operator’), a concession to operate that mine until 30 April 2020. According to a Polish law of 2008, 1 the validity of a lignite mining concession may be extended once for a period of six years without any environmental impact assessment where that extension is motivated by rational management of the deposit without extending the scope of the concession. On 24 October 2019, the operator submitted an application to extend that concession for six years On 21 January 2020, the Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Wrocław (Poland) adopted the Decision on the environmental conditions for the project relating to the continued exploitation of the Turów lignite deposit until 2044 (‘the EIA decision’) and, on 23 January, declared that decision immediately enforceable; On 24 January 2020, the operator attached the EIA decision to its 2019 application for the extension of the mining concession. By a decision of 20 March 2020, the Polish Minister for Climate granted development consent for lignite mining until 2026. Considering that Poland had infringed EU law in several respects by granting that consent, the Czech Republic referred the matter to the European Commission on 30 September 2020. 2 On 17 December 2020, the Commission issued a reasoned opinion in which it criticised Poland for several infringements of EU law. In particular, the Commission considered that, by adopting a measure allowing a six-year extension of lignite mining consent without carrying out an environmental impact assessment, that Member State had infringed the directive on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment. 3