Democracy Digest: Czechia and Poland Mine Rich Seam of Antagonism

Prague has been asking Warsaw to deal with the mine, which sits on the tri-border between Poland, Czechia and Germany, for several years, citing its heavy environmental impact. In particular, Turow, which feeds Poland's heavy addiction to coal for power production, has degraded drinking water in Czechia's northern Liberec Region. There is also concern over air and noise pollution.

Even so, last March, the Polish government agreed to extend the life of the mine, which was due to close this April, until 2027. State-controlled miner PGE says it even hopes to expand mining at the site and extend its life until 2044.

The chasm between the two sides can be summed up by the fact that they cannot even agree on what transpired at a February meeting when Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek travelled to Warsaw for what he described as a last-minute bid to avert legal action. "For a long time, I tried to resolve the dispute with Poland over Turow without any legal struggles," Petricek rued, but said the talks "did not turn out as hoped".

However, Aleksander Brzozka, a spokesman for the Polish Ministry of Environment, told the local media that his ministry was surprised at the Czech decision to sue, given that representatives of both governments had met recently and "it looked like there was a chance to resolve the conflict" outside of the courts.

In December, the European Commission said that Poland had not properly consulted its neighbours regarding the extension and was pushing all sides to compromise to avoid legal action.

For its part, PGE, the Polish energy giant which owns the mine, sought to stress in a statement that it has approached the issue constructively in the six years since it started the process to prolong the concession...