site.btaWe Should Not Lie to Ourselves that Eliminating Coal Plants Will Make Economy Green, Says Deputy Chair of Polish Trade Union

"We should fight for our nature and ecology, but we should not lie to ourselves that by eliminating coal plants the world will get green", said on Wednesday Wojciech Ilnicki, Deputy Chair of the Mining and Energy Association of the Solidarity Trade Union in Poland. Ilnicki took part in a meeting with Stara Zagora Municipality representatives and the unions from the Maritsa-East coal mining and energy complex.

During the meeting, possibilities for joint cooperation of the local administration and the trade unions of the two countries were discussed. Ilnicki noted that Solidarity believes that there will be no rush to implement the Green Deal, as more and more countries are making coalitions and "the worst things in it will be blocked". 

"Although slowly, Europe is waking up. If we all go together on the road, there is a chance that common sense will prevail", he pointed out to journalists in Stara Zagora. The Polish expert added that if there is no conventional energy, the price of electrical energy will rise dramatically. "We see the protests, we see how many jobs and enterprises are being liquidated in Europe. Jobs are being transferred to China and India, where no one follows any rules and environmental norms", he said.

According to him, there must be a stable government in Bulgaria that defends the interests. "Because the government represents the country in the European Union and it must defend, protect and convince the other European Council members that we need the plants," he emphasized.

"Poland is a country where 80% of the electricity is produced from coal," said Biser Binev from the Bulgarian Support Trade Union in Mini Maritsa Iztok. He added that the mines and plants in Poland are organized as one structure, unlike in Bulgaria, where they are separate companies. "Only 5% of the electricity produced in Poland is for sale on the market, they work with long-term contracts," he further noted.

Stara Zagora Deputy Mayor Radostin Tanev indicated that only joint work between the unions, representatives of the local administration and all interested parties can take the right steps on the Green Deal. Tanev emphasised that the problems in both Bulgaria and Poland are the same, and noted some of the approaches to solving the problems, including the introduction of early retirement for miners and land reclamation to be carried out by the mine workers instead of external companies. According to him, the funds from the European Union and the state should be allocated directly to businesses.