
"Coal regions have for many decades fuelled the engines of our economies. Now they need all the help they can get to manage the process of their socio-economic and environmental transition," said ECR Vice-President Oldřich Vlasák in a debate with the EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy.
A guest at the 135th plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions held on 27 June, Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete spoke about the role of local and regional authorities in the EU as key drivers of change towards a carbon-neutral economy.
Addressing the Commissioner on behalf of the ECR Group was its Vice-President, Oldřich Vlasák, who is a Councillor from Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic. He welcomed the Commissioner's pledge that no region would be left behind in the energy transition.
"For two hundred years", Mr Vlasák noted, "industries connected with mining high-quality coal in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, the United Kingdom and many other countries were at the forefront of industrial development and economic growth. Due to changes in the last decade of the 20th century, coal-mining regions have since been facing economic slowdown and high levels of unemployment."
"Europe needs to learn the lessons from its past, otherwise we risk 160 000 people whose work depends on coal losing their jobs and struggling to make ends meet."
Mr Vlasák reiterated the fact that the challenges coal regions were facing today were due to past economic developments and EU financial aid was very much needed to drive their transition, in particular in central and eastern Europe. He also noted that, while the western part of the EU initiated transition of its coal regions in the 1960s, it was only much later that the "new" Member States were able to do so.
"Coal regions" is the term commonly used for regions where coal mining and related industries represent a dominant part of the economic model. With coal currently being mined in 41 regions in 12 EU Member States, more than 240 000 jobs in the EU are dependent on it either directly or indirectly in related industries, such as steelworks or electricity production.
In 2017, the European Commission established its Platform for Coal Regions in Transition, which helps coal-dependent regions, communities and workers with moving towards economic diversification and energy transition. Pilot projects have been launched under the platform's umbrella in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, but this aid is still insufficient.
In August this year, the new European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she wanted to create an investment fund to help transform coal-dependent countries, an idea that has been welcomed by the ECR CoR Members.