“JSW must receive a financial injection from the government, otherwise it will collapse. Jastrzębska must also be recapitalized because it needs investment. We’re saying: develop the company to give it greater potential, while Tusk’s government says: send 3,000 people on leave with severance pay. These two approaches contradict each other,” said Marek Wesoły, Secretary of State at the Ministry of State Assets and the government plenipotentiary for the transformation of energy and coal mining companies in Mateusz Morawiecki’s government, and an MP from Law and Justice.
Tomorrow in Katowice, the “Star March” – a major protest of miners and steelworkers defending their jobs – will take place. The most pressing issue to resolve immediately concerns Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW), which recorded more than PLN 2 billion in losses in just the first half of 2025. The JSW Group employs nearly 32,000 people. What is Donald Tusk’s government doing about it?
“Firstly, there is no comprehensive plan to rescue the company – at least, I haven’t seen one. The Minister of Energy, Miłosz Motyka, proudly announced that JSW had been added to the draft law on one-time severance payments and mining leaves, supposedly so that employees could leave their jobs safely. This is a deceptive move. I have the impression – even though the ‘addition’ of JSW to the bill was a demand of the trade unions – that the miners have been outplayed by Tusk’s team. The law places the companies operating within JSW on a liquidation path, even though Minister Motyka says otherwise. The truth is that this opens the door to the liquidation of enterprises. This is a serious danger. The Law and Justice government supported a different kind of document, a different kind of aid – not the merging of public assistance applied to hard coal mining with coking coal mining.”
You have repeatedly pointed out that JSW requires recapitalization.
“It has to happen. The miners’ departures alone won’t help – that’s just a partial mechanism. JSW must receive a financial injection, and the government must find a remedy to help it; otherwise, it will collapse. This must come from a government fund, plus the possibility of recapitalizing Jastrzębska, which needs investment. We’re saying: develop the company to expand its potential, while Tusk’s government says: send 3,000 people on leave and pay them off. These two ideas clash – it’s a different philosophy of thinking. The company complains that its extraction is too low, which is why it’s operating at a loss, and if 3,000 workers leave, production will fall further, not increase.
We offered a comprehensive rescue plan for the company – above all, the creation of a Critical Raw Materials Act, a strong legal foundation allowing the state to take care, for example, of coking coal. That was supposed to be the basis for launching funds, along with recapitalization and a program combining coking coal with the steel industry. These were concrete, well-developed proposals. What we are seeing from Tusk’s government now is just a bandage on a bleeding wound – it won’t heal anything.”
Today in Poland we are witnessing serious problems in the steel and metallurgical sectors. What can be done to make steelmaking profitable again in Europe?
“These problems start with the issue of coking coal. If an energy-intensive industry like steelmaking faces such high energy prices and struggles with ETS fees, then steelmaking in Europe – and in Poland – becomes completely unprofitable. Europe is getting rid of it. That’s where the troubles begin for the main exporter of coking coal, meaning JSW. Europe wants to develop using steel imported from outside the continent.
Now, the coalition government has made a flawed attempt to introduce tariffs on steel, but it’s only a partial measure. Introducing tariffs alone is not enough – what’s needed is a clear signal to the steel industry in Europe that governments will support these sectors. And today, there’s no talk, for example, of preferential energy prices for energy-intensive industries. Neither the European Union nor Poland wants to introduce them. What’s needed are comprehensive solutions, not waiting for Europe. Poland must have its own program to save the steel industry. If Europe wants to use our ideas, that’s good. But we must take care of our heavy industry ourselves – otherwise, it will be rebuilt outside our country’s borders, or even outside Europe altogether.
In Ukraine, Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia – that’s where steel will be coming from to us. And we won’t be able to compete with that. The world is saying: “Stop. Let’s halt the Green Transition; we must first have cheap energy and access to our raw materials, and only then think about transforming our energy sector.” Europe needs to come to its senses – although I’m not sure it will, because the information coming from the European Parliament is very pessimistic.