Environmental NGOs Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (DUHA), along with the Frank Bold activist legal organisation, have filed a complaint with the European Commission about the Czech authorities’ procedures in setting the emission limit for the Pocerady coal-fired power plant, they told CTK today.
The court revoked the exemption for the power plant, owned by the Sev.en Energy group, last summer. The complainants say no-one has solved the issues, and they are demanding that the European Commission investigate whether the Czech Republic’s approach to the Pocerady power plant is in violation of the EU Industrial Emissions Directive, in addition to Czech law.
According to the activists, the Usti Regional Office should have immediately ordered the plant operator to comply with the proper emission limits, but the office argues that it is currently deciding on a new emission exemption.
“If no one intervenes, the exemption procedure will drag on for months, during which time the operator will be happily discharging toxic mercury emissions completely uncontrolled and at variance with the law,” said Lukas Hrabek, spokesman for Greenpeace Czech Republic. “Moreover, it is very likely that the operator will not get a new exemption after all. We therefore hope that the European Commission will remind the officials that we live in a democratic state governed by the rule of law and that we are all equal before the law.”
Eva Marikova, spokeswoman for Sev.en Energy, told CTK earlier that the exemption of Pocerady from the emission limits had a negligible impact on the environment, as evident from expert opinions.
The complainants argue that the Environment Ministry should have ordered the regional authority to take action. “The emission limits were set after long negotiations in 2017, with coal-fired power plants having four years to comply,” said Vaclav Prais, an expert from Frank Bold and co-author of the complaint. “These are therefore not unrealistic targets, but quite basic and achievable standards. It is therefore a fundamental violation of European law for the Czech authorities to be unable to crack down on the biggest polluters and enforce compliance with basic rules.”
Based on the complaint, the European Commission may initiate communication with the Czech authorities and ask them for explanations. If it concludes that European law was violated, it can take the Czech Republic to the EU Court of Justice, which could impose fines of millions of crowns for the breach, the complainants said in a press release.
