The Turow surface coal mine operated by PGE company is seen in Bogatynia, Poland, June 15, 2021. REUTERS/David W Cerny

WARSAW, Jan 19 (Reuters) – If the Czech government agrees to terms for resolving a dispute over the Turow lignite mine, it will withdraw its complaint to the European Union‘s highest court, a minister said on Wednesday. Poles, making an optimistic note about the latest round of talks.

The two European Union neighbors are embroiled in a dispute over Poland’s expansion of the Turow mining operation, which powers an adjacent power station important to Poland’s energy supply.

The Czech Republic says mining is causing groundwater loss and other pollution, and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ordered Poland to pay a daily penalty of 500,000 euros ($566,700.00) to the European Commission for not interrupting operations at the mine. Read more

“If the agreement is successfully signed (…), the Czech side will immediately inform the court that the dispute has been resolved and will withdraw its complaint,” Environment Minister Anna Moskwa told public radio. Polskie Radio 1.

Moskwa met on Tuesday in Warsaw with the new Czech Minister for the Environment, Anna Hubackova. Ministers said the terms that had been discussed must now be approved by the Czech government.

“Yesterday’s meeting certainly produced more than the previous 18 meetings with the previous government, not only in terms of atmosphere…but also in terms of specific arrangements,” Moskwa said.

She said that Poland was ready to agree immediately to the conditions discussed if the Czech government accepted them.

Neither side gave details on what the deal might look like.

Warsaw and Prague argued over the length of the deal, with Poland suggesting it could be terminated after two years, which the Czech side said was unacceptable given the mine’s expected lifespan of over two decades.

($1 = 0.8823 euros)

Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Tomasz Janowski

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.