When the European Court of Justice (ECJ) hit Poland with a €500,000 ($586,000) daily fine on September 20 after Warsaw refused to shut down the country’s Turow coal mine, many in the small Polish town of Bogatynia near the border with the Czech Republic and Germany feared the worst. In June, Prague asked the EU’s highest court to fine Warsaw €5 million per day for failing to halt production at the mine after arguing the mine created environmental problems. The conflict was triggered when PGE, a state-controlled energy holding that runs the mine, said it was planning to expand digging closer to the Czech …
