Prague, 25th November - Inhabitants of German Lusatia and representatives of local civil initiatives asked today in person the bosses of CEZ energy company to promise not to enlarge the lignite mines in Germany in case they will buy the Vattenfall coal bussiness from Swedish government. They demand the same promise even from the other potential buyers from Czech republic. In principle they don't have anything against the Czech companies but they don't like the idea of increasing the coal mining.

Memorial for destroyed Sorbian villages in Lacoma, which was erected in 1994 and renovated in 2007 and 2015. An official documentation centre was opened in New Horno in 2006.

82 villages and settlements have already been razed to the ground in Lusatia because of lignite mining. It is our duty to end this wholesale destruction as well as to preserve the historic Lusatian landscape and to support the many people who built houses in areas formerly designated for lignite mining, where restrictions were repealed in 1990. Apart from material losses every village resettlement represents an irretrievable human and cultural loss.

It was the environmental groups that were oppressed in the GDR, the so-called "Environmental and Peace Circles", that were the first to bring the problems of lignite mining to public notice in the period before and during the period of change in 1989/90. Out of these and other groups the Green League, a non-party environmental organization, was founded in 1990.

In January 2013 wo sent the following letter to the Swedish Minister for Financial Markets Peter Norman and all Members of the Swedish Parliament:

Distinguished Minister,
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, we turn to you in your capacity as the owners of the company Vattenfall.In our region, the Lausitz, the New Year spirits of many people were dampened due to an uncertain future for their houses and villages. The reason for their anguish is that the Swedish company Vattenfall operates open cast lignite mines and lignite power stations in our region. For operating the latter even more villages will be destroyed and 3,200 people will be resettled. Furthermore, the groundwater level will be lowered and vast areas of valuable landscape will be destroyed.

With a CCS demonstration plant at the brown-coal-based Jänschwalde power plant in Brandenburg the energy concern Vattenfall intends to commence in 2015 the large-scale capture of CO2 and its storage beneath a built-up area. EU funding of 180 million euros is earmarked for this project. Following changes to the technical concept, we have evaluated the documents that Vattenfall submitted to the Brandenburg Landtag (parliament) and licensing authorities and come to the following conclusions.