Polish Briefing: The social contract on coal mining to be signed in February

What goes on in Poland on the 16th of December.

The social agreement on coal mining to be signed in February

The social agreement specifying the details of the transition of the hard coal mining industry should be signed in February to proceed with its notification to the European Commission in March – representatives of the government and coal companies agreed with mining unions during Tuesday’s talks.

According to the information from Deputy Minister of States Assets Artur Soboń, the parties are to return to the talks in mid-January in order to work together on all the documentation. – I assume (…) that in February we should be ready for pre-notification, and by the end of March we should have a complete set of documents – and this is the schedule today – said Soboń after the talks the government plenipotentiary for transformation of energy companies and coal mining.

The head of the Silesian-Dąbrowa Solidarity movement, Dominik Kolorz, announced that in the coming weeks trade unions will be analyzing the materials received on Tuesday from the Ministry representatives, including initial proposal for a draft social contract. The next meeting, which is to start the actual negotiations on the content of the contract, is scheduled for January 13 next year.

– Due to the fact that the pre-notification is planned by the government for the second half of February, it seems that the social contract must be signed by this second half of February. We hope that there will be no unexpected events from the government – said Kolorz. During the Tuesday meeting in Katowice. – The financing mechanism will be objective, indicated, showing the real costs and showing the scope of the state aid granted, so that it meets all the criteria that the EU requires in relation to the authorized state aid – emphasized Soboń.