The Polish government has submitted four complaints against EU climate policies, calling them “authoritarian” and pledging that it “will not allow Brussels’ diktat.”
Three new cases filed to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) relate to a ban on the registration of new internal combustion vehicles after 2035, an increase in the EU’s greenhouse gas reduction target, and a reduction of free emission allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). [emphasis, links added]
They follow another complaint filed last week against EU rules on land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF), which Poland says infringes on the competencies of member states.
“Does the [European] Union want to decide in an authoritarian manner what kind of vehicles Poles will drive and whether energy prices will rise in Poland?” tweeted climate minister Anna Moskwa on Monday.
“The Polish government will not allow Brussels’ diktat.”
This morning, the minister added in an interview with Polskie Radio that the government would also file a fifth complaint this week concerning 35,000 tonnes of rubbish that it says has illegally entered the country from Germany.
Poland will sue Germany at the European Court of Justice over its alleged failure to remove waste illegally transported to Poland.
Around 35,000 tonnes of waste remains at seven sites in Poland, says the climate ministry https://t.co/28uwpZUQb3
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 19, 2023
Poland’s current national-conservative government has regularly criticized the EU’s climate and environmental policies.
Ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński has called them “madness and theories without evidence” and “green communism”.
“At every EU council, we have been against and voted as a government against every single document in the Fit for 55 package,” said Moskwa, referring to the EU’s program to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
“It is no secret that we were against the whole package, we are against increasing climate ambition and the way [these efforts] are carried and forced [upon member countries],” added the minister.
The EU's climate policies are "green communism" that will "benefit the richest Europeans at the expense of the poorer ones", says Jarosław Kaczyński.
Poland's government says it will not support “Fit for 55”, the EU’s flagship programme to cut emissions https://t.co/d6kUiBRdRe
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 24, 2023
A recent EU-funded study found Poland to be the bloc’s least green country. It still relies on coal to produce around 70% of its electricity, by far the highest figure in the EU.
Poland is Europe’s second-largest producer of brown coal after Germany and the largest producer of hard coal.
In March, Poland was the only member state to oppose the introduction of a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035.
In an interview today, Moskwa argued that unanimity should have been required for this decision as its impact is heavily dependent on member countries’ energy mix.
“In our case, [banning combustion engines] is absolutely contrary to climate policy, because it will lead to an increase in coal consumption in the short term if we want to increase electricity production [to power electric vehicles],” she said.
Asked about the other complaints, Moskwa said Poland was challenging most of them on the same grounds as the ban on the sale of combustion cars.
“The argument in most of these complaints is the same, mainly concerning the legal basis and unanimity, the impact on the energy mix,” she said.
Top photo of a Polish brown coal mine.
Read rest at Notes From Poland
Maybe Poland should totally pull out of the EU and let them take care of their own problems they have brought on with their Open Borders and America needs to pull out of the United Nations
From the very beginning, the global warming movement knew that its agenda could only be implemented by top down mandates. In the US, when the people have been able to vote on the issue directly, action on climate change almost always fails.