ABSTRACT
Climate and energy policy is one of the most important common EU policies, and the European Commission has committed itself to a European Green Deal with the aim of a climate-neutral EU by 2050. However, one EU member state cannot commit itself to implement this objective – Poland – where hard coal is the largest raw material for electricity production and has high political and economic significance. Due to the many active coal organizations and their ties with political parties as well as the strong political polarization of society, mining trade unions are among the most important interest groups in Poland. The EU’s second-largest hard coal producer is the Czech Republic, where the level of hard coal extraction is much lower than in Poland. The chapter explores how the main organized interests and, in particular, trade unions impact their energy policies and, more specifically, how they shape the Polish and Czech governments’ positions on the EU’s climate and energy policy. Drawing on the theoretical literature on interest groups, the author explores how coal mining trade unions justify their position toward EU climate and energy policy and their specific strategies. He then addresses to what extent the positions and activities of hard coal-mining (HCM) unions have shaped government policy toward EU climate and energy policy, while also explaining why the Czech Republic changed its position at the December 2019 European Council meeting.
