Civic Coalition (PO)—Poland’s liberal, Brussels-aligned government-in-waiting—has halted a controversial wind energy bill after the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party contended the policy would do the bidding of wealthy German business interests. PO leader Donald Tusk’s coalition is expected to take the reins of government next week after it, together with anti-PiS opposition parties, secured 53% of the vote in mid-October.
Tusk’s progressive rainbow coalition ran explicitly on a ‘green’ energy agenda. Even before having been asked to form a government, it submitted the bill last month—in line with campaign promises—aiming to freeze energy prices and liberalize restrictions on wind farm construction. Subsequently, Telewizja Polska (TVP) reports, Tusk’s coalition was accused by PiS MP Robert Telus, former minister of agriculture and rural development, of proposing the law in order to reward German lobbyists for their financial support in the elections.
The bill sought to reduce the legal minimum distance between wind turbines and residential buildings from 700 meters—a regulation from the PiS-led government regarded by opponents as stifling to the wind energy sector—to 300 meters. This, according to PiS MP Zbigniew Rau, would result in a “sharp decline in the value of the land around these windmills.”
For Robert Telus, the legislation introduced by the new parliamentary majority posed a threat to rural areas by making land acquisition easier, potentially enabling German companies to purchase Polish farmland and transform it into wind farms. Critics also said the law, if passed, would open the door for land expropriation.
“At a time of war in Ukraine, a global crisis, the PO—by allowing the construction of wind turbines on top-tier agricultural land—is acting to the detriment of Polish food security,” the former minister said.
Telus suggested that the law’s proposal was linked to €5 billion in EU post-pandemic recovery funds (KPO) that Poland is set to receive after the European Commission late last month positively assessed the country’s revised recovery plan, including so-called ‘green’ reforms and investments.
The €5 billion, Telus alleged, ‘corresponds’ to the €4.5 billion loss recorded by the German company Siemens, a major provider of wind turbine technology.
“We received this funding to cover Siemens’ losses, and it is visible to the naked eye. We regret this fact, but it shows that there is a very strong German policy in the EU,” Telus contended.
Tusk’s coalition has denied the allegations, arguing that the expansion of wind farms would help curb the country’s rising electricity prices.
Following the claims of PiS— the country’s single largest party— Chair of the Sejm (parliament) Szymon Holownia announced on Tuesday, December 5th, that the wind energy bill will be separated from the draft law on energy prices for now, but added that the issue of “expanding wind energy will not be abandoned.”
While the parties in Tusk’s soon-to-be governing coalition did win over a sizeable portion of PiS voters, which draws half of its support from those living in the countryside, it is not a big leap in logic to assume that those rural voters weren’t exactly voting for massive windfarms 300 meters from their properties. Tusk’s coalition surely is aware of this and may have backed off from enacting the legislation, at least for the time being. This would not be due to PiS arguments, but fear of an anticipated backlash from its new voters.
