Nowa Kompania Węglowa (a new version of Poland’s largest coal mining company) will not have been created within the stipulated time, i.e. by September 30. The Ministry of Treasury explains that more time is needed to develop a plan of restructuring which will not meet with the disapproval of the European Commission.
‘The Government will stall’, judges Maciej Bukowski, the President of Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies. ‘In the current market conditions, in which the price of coal on the world market fell below $50, this could mean only one thing – the state mining is bankrupt. Market conditions being bad, the painful process of restructuring is awaiting us. The employment is increasing significantly (doubling even) – we need to close unprofitable mines, which are numerous. We need to focus our efforts only on those cost-effective, with more geological potential. The current authorities has been taken aback by the sudden change in prices on the world market, but in fact neither the current Government nor the previous one did accomplish what should have been accomplished a long time ago – a privatization of the mining companies’, stated firmly the expert.