EVROPSKÁ ASOCIACE PRO UHLÍ A LIGNIT - EURACOAL

European Association for Coal and Lignite - EURACOAL

A history of this organisation dates back to the year 1953, when the Association of the Coal Producers of Western Europe was founded. By including brown coal, the number of member organisations increased gradually and simultaneously the significance of the organisation grew on the whole-European scale.  In the year 2000 EURACOAL was integrated into the organisation.

The main goal of the Association is dealing with technical, economical, sociological, ecological and legal issues concerning the coal and energy industries so that the interests of coal industry may be enforced and possibilities of implementation of potential discrimination measures for coal utilisation may be prevented.

 The main tools of the Association are as follow:

· continuous informing the members about the course of discussions on coal and energy problems in the EU.

· the systematic creation of platforms for discussions and information exchange between EU bodies and EURACOAL members.

· taking part in the process of forming political and regulation conditions and conveying the interests of coal industry

· publication activity orientated towards improving the image of coal and energy industries

· cooperation with significant associations and interest groups in the enforcement of common interests.

At present, EUROCAL comprises 14 countries. They are largely employers' associations bringing together producers, processors and importers of coal, research institutions and higher education institutions. As for the Czech Republic, representatives of Appian Group a.s., Severočeské doly, a.s., Sokolovská uhelná a.s., Mostecká uhelná a.s. and Výzkumný ústav pro hnědé uhlí Most a.s. associated in ZSDNP participate in the Association.

The activity of the Association is managed by the Executive Committee which coordinates and manages 4 expert committees:         

General Purposes Committee

Environment Committee

Technical Research Committee

Committee on Business Statistics and Monitoring the Development of Coal Markets

As to individual activities:

This year, a new conception of web pages was prepared, a workshop on emissions trading and on the preparation of national allocation plans and an informative workshop for the new Member States of EU took place.

A statement on the introduction of new clean coal technologies is under preparation, a statement on the draft directive on the security of energy supply and the functionality of energy infrastructure is being elaborated. Simultaneously, the first Coal Dialogue between the European Commission members and the European Parliament members that should be repeated regularly is under preparation.