Between August 2024 and March 2025 the Cross-border Talks’ team realized a cross-border journalism project on just transition in four countries of Central and Southeastern Europe – Poland, Czechia, Romania and Bulgaria, with the support of Jouralism Fund. The page of the project on the site of Journalism Fund can be read here.
The Just Transition Mechanism, part of The European Green Deal, promised Europe’s coal regions that their communities would not be left behind as coal-intensive industries closed. The mechanism was designed not only to support green investment and job creation for former miners. It was also designed to promote local democracy: unlike during the industrialisation process, local communities would have a say in how the future local economy would be organised.
But the reality on the ground is less optimistic: in all the countries visited by this team of journalists, some citizens do not believe in a transition that is not for the worse. Politicians find it easier to promise to keep mining going for as long as possible than to strategically plan for the post-coal economy and systematically attract investment. For business, it makes sense to look for alternatives to expensive coal – but caring for the workers who lose their coal jobs is often beyond the horizon. And when miners see their hard but well-paid jobs not being replaced by jobs of equal quality, they tend to cling to the status quo or vote for the anti-green populist right. While some coal regions are doing better than others, these are the ones that had an advantage in the first place – either because of local good practice in absorbing EU funds or because of their geographical location.
Below are the articles, interviews and media cooperations, which the Cross-border Talks’ team realised within this project:
Articles
Interviews
In other media
How a coal region in Romania is experiencing transformation [Как един въглищен регион в Румъния преживява трансформацията] (an interview with Vladimir Mitev on the just transition in the Jiu Valley region) – Radio Stara Zagora, The Green Transition Minutes (in Bulgarian), 22.01.2025
Poland on that path of transition [Полша по пътя на прехода] (an interview with Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat on the just transition in Poland) – Radio Stara Zagora, The Green Transition Minutes (in Bulgarian), 29.01.2025
The problems of the coal regions in Romania [Проблемите на въглищните региони в Румъния] (Malgorzata Kulbzcewska-Figat interviews Corina Murafa – a leading Romanian expert on just transition) – Radio Stara Zagora, The Green Transition Minutes (in Bulgarian), 26.03.2025
Dimitar Sabev, Bulgaria: The heterogeneity of political and economic interests in the Marița-East coal region creates obstacles to a just transition process; Bulgaria’s green transition simply replaces coal with solar energy [Dimitar Sabev, Bulgaria: Eterogenitatea intereselor politice și economice în regiunea carboniferă Marița-Est creează obstacole în calea procesului de tranziție echitabilă; Tranziția verde bulgară înlocuiește pur și simplu cărbunele cu energia solară] (Vladimir Mitev and Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat interview Dimitar Sabev – a Bulgarian economist, who is knowledgable on green policies) – Financial Intelligence (in Romanian), 25.02.2025
Just transition in Romania and Bulgaria – mission impossible? [Tranziția justă din România și Bulgaria – o misiune imposibilă?] (Malgorzata Kulbzcewska and Vladimir Mitev with a shortened version of their main text on the just transition in Romania and Bulgaria) – Financial Intelligence (in Romanian) – 15.04.2025
Is the coal transition in Romania a decline or an opportunity? [Упадък или възможност е въглищният преход в Румъния?] (Vladimir Mitev and Malgorzata Kulbaczewska write about their discoveries on the issue of just transition in the Jiu Valley in Romania) – Mediapool (in Bulgaria) – 21.04.2025
0
