Greenpeace has recorded a video in which it asks the Government when Slovakia will stop coal mining and coal combustion, the organisation announced on Tuesday. The video was projected onto the wall of the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava on Monday evening. An electronic banner stating "coal belongs in museums" was displayed next to the projected images. The organisation pointed to several points highlighted in the latest version of the Government's own Action Plan for Transforming the Upper Nitra Region, where Slovakia's main coal mines are located. These include the rejection of a 12th network of tunnels in the Nováky coal mine, a possible shutdown of the Čáry mine in 2025-26, and a request to do away with coal reserves. According to the activists, there is good news in the fact that electric utility Slovenské elektrárne has stated several times that it doesn't expect the Nováky power plant to continue burning coal after 2023.
It is well known, however, that the end of coal mining and burning is bound to have negative economic impacts on the regions involved, especially in terms of unemployment. This is why the EU has earmarked funds to assist those employees affected by such shutdowns, and to facilitate their retraining for other areas of employment. At a press conference on Tuesday, however, economist Viliam Páleník, who collaborated with Greenpeace on its analysis of the current Slovak coal situation, was critical of the Government's Action Plan, claiming among other things that the document does not foresee the full closure of the mines, which according to the EU is a condition for receiving its support for coal regions undergoing such transformation.
