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EU court adviser says Poland should get back EU funds withheld over Turow mine
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 10, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 10, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Poland may regain EU funds withheld due to Turow mine fines, as an EU court adviser supports Poland's appeal, citing a prior agreement with Prague.
WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland should be able to recover funds withheld from the European Union's regular payments to offset fines that the bloc imposed on Warsaw over its past non-compliance with a ruling of the EU Court of Justice, a court adviser said on Thursday.
The EU's top court in 2021 imposed a daily fine of 500,000 euros ($586,500) on Poland for not stopping the operations of its Turow lignite mine and power plant on the border with the Czech Republic.
This followed a complaint from Prague that its operations were endangering water sources of residents across the border.
Poland's previous nationalist government had refused to comply with the court ruling and the European Commission withheld 68.5 million euros from funds the EU had been due to pay Warsaw as part of regular transfers from the bloc.
In 2024, the EU General Court ruled that the EU executive had the right to withhold cash from funds assigned to Warsaw to cover the fines.
Poland's new centrist government has asked the court to annul the ruling and the fines.
"In her opinion delivered today, Advocate General Juliane Kokott proposes that the Court of Justice uphold Poland's appeal, set aside the judgment of the General Court and annul the Commission's offsetting decisions," the court said in a statement.
The Court of Justice in most cases follows the opinion of the advocate general in its rulings.
The court referenced in its statement an "amicable agreement" reached between Warsaw and Prague in 2022 under which Poland paid the Czech Republic compensation for infrastructure upgrades and other environmental safeguards in return for the Turow facility being allowed to continue operating.
It said this accord meant "the Commission wrongly offset the penalty payment against Poland's claims against the EU budget".
($1 = 0.8525 euros)
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki and Anna Wlodarczak-SemczukEditing by Gareth Jones)
The EU withheld funds due to Poland's non-compliance with a court ruling regarding the Turow lignite mine, which was found to endanger water sources in the Czech Republic.
Advocate General Juliane Kokott proposed that the Court of Justice uphold Poland's appeal and annul the European Commission's offset of the penalty payment.
The 2024 ruling stated that the EU executive had the right to withhold funds from Poland to cover the fines imposed for the Turow mine's operations.
An amicable agreement was reached in 2022, where Poland compensated the Czech Republic for infrastructure upgrades related to the Turow mine.
The EU's top court imposed a daily fine of 500,000 euros on Poland for not stopping operations at the Turow lignite mine.
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