Polish and international participants in the conference held in conjunction with the International Mining, Energy and Steel Industry, organized on Tuesday (August 29) in Katowice by the Mining Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

There is a significant group of countries within the EU where lignite (nearly 400 million tons annually) and hard coal (nearly 90 million tons) are still mined. These include Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Finland. Even more European countries still use coal in the energy sector. In the Netherlands alone—as Brian Rickets, Secretary General of Euracoal, emphasized—two modern coal-fired power plants were recently commissioned, creating a need for several million tons of additional coal fuel. Over 160 million tons of hard coal are imported into the EU annually, mainly from Russia.