The European Commission said on February 8 it would take the unprecedented step of tapping into EU funding earmarked for Poland to collect a fine imposed on Warsaw for refusing to close a coal mine, one of several points of friction between Brussels and the eastern European nation.

EU Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said the EU had informed Poland of its decision, which will be carried out next week.

Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said Warsaw would use “all possible legal means to appeal against this”, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.

The cut will amount to nearly €15 million ($17 million) for the period between September 20 and October 19 last year. The total unpaid fine amounts to around €70 million including interest, according to an AFP calculation.

The row is the latest to afflict relations between Brussels and one of the EU’s biggest members, already on a knife edge over controversial judicial reforms enacted by Poland’s conservative government.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) hit Poland with the €500,000 a day fine last September for refusing to comply with an order to close its Turow mine producing lignite, or brown coal.

Poland’s neighbours, the Czech Republic and Germany, had complained of environmental damage from the mine, including groundwater pollution as well as dust and noise.

Last week, Poland signed a deal with the Czech Republic to end the dispute over the mine, which was confirmed by the court on February 8.

But that did not erase the fine, which Warsaw has insisted it will not pay.

Poland argues that decisions taken by the EU court violate the country’s right to ensure its energy supply.

But the EU justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, insisted that the European Commission – the guardian of the EU treaties – must be seen to uphold the decisions of the EU court.

“If the member state does not pay, it is obvious that we must organise, as we have said from the start, the withholding of funds,” he said.

“If we don’t do this, no one would pay their fines anymore, obviously,” he said.

Ujvari said the levied amount covering the period September 20 to October 19 would be recovered from Poland’s EU funding. That comes to €14.5 million plus interest, which takes it close to a total of €15 million.

Poland has been hit with another CJEU fine, of €1 million per day, for refusing to suspend a national Supreme Court chamber contested by Brussels.

The EU accuses Warsaw of undermining judicial independence and rolling back democratic norms.

There, too, the commission has warned it will recover the fine amount – currently over €100 million – from Poland’s EU funding if it goes unpaid.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has proposed a law to scrap the Supreme Court chamber in hopes of drawing a line under the dispute.

But the changes still have to be approved by Polish lawmakers, and legal observers queried whether it is merely a rebranding exercise.