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Poland explained to Austria why it’s building a nuclear plant
Intergovernmental consultations between Poland and Austria on the first nuclear power plant in Pomerania have ended.
After reviewing the project documentation submitted by Poland in September 2022 (Espoo report), Austria sent a number of questions to Warsaw, the purpose of which was to clarify some issues. These issues have been thoroughly analyzed by the Polish side. “The explanations were given first in writing, and then, at the request of Austria, at a bilateral meeting,” said the future operator of Polish nuclear power plants about the meeting held on June 1 in Warsaw.
During the day-long discussions, Polish experts provided substantive and detailed explanations to all questions from the Austrian side. At the end of the meeting, the parties agreed that in the near future they will agree on the content of the protocol summarizing the intergovernmental consultations between Poland and Austria, which will then be signed by the relevant representatives of both countries. “Cross-border consultations are conducted on the basis of an act of international law – the Espoo Convention – and are part of the procedure aimed at issuing a decision on environmental conditions for a project consisting in the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant with an electrical capacity of up to 3750 MWe in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. The General Directorate for Environmental Protection will refer to the results of the cross-border environmental impact investigation, including the comments and conclusions submitted by the states participating in the investigation, in the decision on environmental conditions,” the Directorate said.
The Poles have already spoken with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, Latvia, Hungary, Germany and Slovakia. They await the conclusion of the consultations with Denmark and Austria at the time of signature of the protocol following the consultations.
Poland wants to have the first AP1000 reactor from the American Westinghouse in 2033 and 6-9 GW in nuclear power by 2043.
GDOŚ / Wojciech Jakóbik
UOKiK: Orlen did not violate the rules when setting fuel prices at the end of 2022
The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has completed an investigation into the prices of fuels set by Orlen at the end of 2022. The Office said the company did not violate the rules.
In the course of the investigation, UOKiK requested PKN Orlen to provide information concerning, in particular: the calculation behind wholesale fuel prices in the second half of 2022, the method of setting these prices (including the indices and price formulas used for this purpose), the volumes of fuel sold, the prices applied in other countries in which the Group is present, the pricing and discount policy offered to individual purchasing groups, the volume of reserves and the capacity of the company’s refineries.
In addition, UOKiK appealed to Aramco Fuels Poland (formerly Lotos Paliwa), and to other fuel companies operating on the Polish market to submit, among others, commercial data on applicable fuel prices.
“In our investigation, which we consulted with the European Commission, we thoroughly examined the situation on the fuel market at the end of last year. We checked the way Orlen calculated the prices and conducted economic tests to verify whether these were excessive prices within the meaning of antitrust laws. We have also drawn on the experience and case law of other EU antitrust authorities, the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the EU. The investigation revealed that the fuel prices applied by Orlen in December 2022 were dropping slower than fuel prices on European markets. However, this did not constitute a violation of the law under Polish and EU competition law. The level of prices used by Orlen at the end of the year was lower than the levels recognized in the case law as abuse of a dominant position through the use of excessive prices,” said the President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny, quoted in the Office’s press release.
The Office has said that the investigation into fuel prices has been completed, and UOKiK would continue to monitor the situation on the market and did not rule out further actions if there is a suspicion of a violation of the law.
Polish Press Agency / Jędrzej Stachura
