After the EU fined Poland for not bending its knee to the EU’s demands that it cuts off a power station and ends a lignite mining operation, Poland told the EU it’s just not paying the fines. Now, as the EU prepares to doll out the cash it gives out to member nations, it has informed Poland it will simply withhold the funds that it needs to pay the fine.
EU notifies Poland it will withhold its EU cash to cover unpaid fines
From www.euronews.com
2022-02-09 10:15:41
Excerpt:
BRUSSELS – The European Commission notified Poland on Tuesday it would withhold cash that the EU was to pay Warsaw as part of regular EU transfers, to cover the first part of fines imposed by the EU’s court on Poland which the country did not pay.
This is the first time that the Commission has to withhold EU money for a member country because it is not complying with a ruling by the EU’s top court.
Last September, the Court of Justice of the European Union put a 500,000 euro ($571,000) daily fine on Poland for not stopping the operations of its Turow lignite mine and power plant on the border with Czech Republic.
This followed a complaint from Prague that its operations were endangering water sources of residents across the border. Poland’s eurosceptic and nationalist government refused to comply with the court ruling.
“The Commission has informed Poland that it would proceed with the offsetting of payments for penalties due under case C-121/21 Czechia v Poland on Turów lignite mine”, Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said in a statement.
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