WARSAW, Poland — Some four thousand Polish coal mining and power workers protested in Warsaw Wednesday against the gradual phasing out of coal use and against a European Union court order to immediately close down a mine.
Trade unions organizing the protest said Europe’s shift from coal — which is abundant in Poland but polluting — towards renewable energy will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs in the country.
They also argued that the policy would threaten Poland’s energy security and make the large central European nation heavily dependent on fuel and power imports from Germany and Russia.
The demonstrators left petitions at the European Commission’s office in Warsaw and at some government ministries, but were not let into the prime minister’s office and stuck a copy on the door.
The protest was spurred by an order last month from a top EU court for Poland to immediately halt operation of the Turow brown coal mine that feeds the Turow power plant, the source of some 7% percent of Poland’s energy. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit by the neighboring Czech Republic which says the mine is draining water from its border villages.
Poland has not stopped the Turow mine, arguing it would cut power to over 2 million households, and insisting that the court did not have full information on the situation while taking its decision. Warsaw is holding intensive talks with Prague seeking to settle the matter out of court.
Once coal-driven, Poland has taken strides in cutting that reliance and in embracing renewable energy sources, but the EU and environmental groups say the changes are too slow and the plans not ambitious enough to meet the bloc’s goals.
