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| - Europe's top court ordered Poland on Friday to suspend the extraction of lignite -- a low-quality brown coal -- at an open-cast mine that provides around seven percent of the country's electricity. The order against the Turow mine comes after a complaint from the neighbouring Czech Republic, which argued that the mining created a cross-border environmental hazard and breaches EU law. The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in favour of a Czech request to suspend mining pending a final ruling. "Poland must immediately cease lignite extraction activities in the Turow mine," a statement said. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reacted angrily, calling the decision "unjust" and vowing that Poland would "resolutely counteract this". "I am convinced we will be able to demonstrate our rationale and conclude the whole matter in such a way that the lives and health of Polish citizens will not be endangered due to this," he said. Morawiecki said the mine and adjoining power plant provide electricity for up to three million people. Czech Environment Minister Richard Brabec was delighted, tweeting: "The first big win in the Turow case! "I am very happy on behalf of all our citizens and I thank everyone who has helped us in the legal battle for our environment, especially the foreign ministry!" Greenpeace Poland also hailed the decision, saying it was a consequence of the government's "stubborn persistence of sticking to the carbon status quo". In operation since 1904, the mine supplies coal mainly to a local power station. Poland's largest energy group PGE, which owns both the mine and the plant, is planning to extract coal at Turow until 2044. PGE wants to expand the mine from 25 to 30 square kilometres (10 to 12 square miles) and extract coal from a depth of up to 330 metres (1,000 feet). The Polish ministry of climate and environment extended Turow's mining licence by six years in March 2020, despite protests from the Czech Republic and Germany. The European Commission said last December that Poland had misjudged the environmental impact of the mine and misinformed neighbours about its plans. Poland, which relies heavily on coal for power production, has been sceptical of EU green rules. "What is the mine supposed to do? What about the miners? This is simply ideology overriding reason," declared deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk. Turow's state-owned operator, PGE, tweeted: "The EU's green deal is failing before our eyes". The court ruling said, on the face of the matter, Polish legislation allowing an open-cast mining project to be extended without an environmental impact assessment could break EU law. And deemed it "sufficiently likely" that continuing to exploit Turow would "have negative effects on the level of groundwater in Czech territory". The court also said Poland had failed to prove its claim that shutting the mine would force the closure of the power station and lead to local power outages. dc-dt/bp
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