Meeting with the organizers of the campaign on energy prices. TVN journalists were not admitted

The Monday meeting was held in the press center of the Polish Press Agency. It was organized by the Economic Society of Polish Power Plants. The main statement of the association is that “the EU climate tax is as much as 60 percent of the cost of energy production”. Although the information about the meeting was made available by PAP, some journalists who attended the meeting were not admitted, including reporters from TVN 24 and “Fakty” TVN.

– I don’t know why it happened. None of us provided such information, because you, as an association, rented the press center room only from us on a commercial basis. There are no media from the Polish Press Agency for this, and we, as the Polish Press Agency, the press center, did not invite the media, explained the head of the PAP press center Lidia Garbaczuk to TVN 24 journalists. She added that the meeting place is a commercial space that each client can rent on general terms.

Meeting with the organizers of the campaign on energy prices. Only selected journalists entered

When the hour of the meeting struck, one of the co-organizers of the meeting opened the door to the room and invited journalists – but only selected ones. When the reporter of the “Polska i Świat” magazine asked if he could come in, he heard: “I invite you without a microphone and without a camera, these are the guidelines” – TVN 24 reports

The meeting was attended by Ryszard Wasiłek, president of the board of Towarzystwo Gospodarcze Polskie Elektrownie and vice president of PGE. When asked why some of the journalists were not allowed in, he replied: “It was not me who organized this meeting, but participated in it.

Billboard campaign for PLN 12 million

The campaign of the Polish Power Plant Economic Society has been underway for several days, which “aims to inform the public about the structure of the costs of electricity production in Poland”. The campaign was initiated by the largest domestic energy producers: Tauron Wytwarzanie, Enea Wytwarzanie, Enea Połaniec, PGE GiEK and PGNiG Termika.

The following slogans can be read on billboards, which are the campaign’s showpieces, ” the European Union’s climate tax is as much as 60 percent of the cost of energy production ”. ” EU climate policy = expensive energy, high prices ”.

False information on billboards. Among the initiators of the idea of ​​”Sasin’s soldier”

Experts judged the government’s campaign to be misleading. Jakub Wiech from Energetyka24.com added that the impact of climate policy on the bills is about 20 percent, which is three times less than the posters show. In addition, this amount, charged for CO2 emissions, goes not to the EU budget, but to the Member States – in 2021 Poland thus gained PLN 25 billion.

According to the findings of Wirtualna Polska, the entire campaign created by Towarzystwo Gospodarcze Polskie Elektrownie amounted to nearly PLN 12 million. The findings of the journalist of WP.pl, Szymon Jadczak, coincide with the information provided by the journalists of Gazeta.pl, Patryk Strzałkowski and Jacek Gądek. Anonymous interviewees of Wirtualna Polska also say that the idea of ​​the anti-EU campaign came from the Ministry of State Assets, and some add that it is Jacek Sasin’s “personal idea”. In addition, the key to the implementation of the idea was to be the president of PGE Wojciech Dąbrowski, called by the informants “Sasin’s soldier”. Also mentioned is the name of Anna Plakwicz, who “became famous” for the preparation of the “Righteous Courts” campaign aimed at judges.

The money for the campaign came from companies owned by state-owned companies. Enea Połaniec and Enea Wytwarzanie were to spend PLN 1.5 ml on the campaign, PGE GiEK, Tauron Wytwarzanie and Energa were to transfer PLN 3 million each, and PGNiG Terminka was to pay PLN 400 thousand. zlotys.

– Everyone has known for several months that energy prices will rise sharply. And it was also known that nothing can be done about it, it is impossible to lower electricity prices manually, you cannot cancel these CO2 emission charges, you cannot control it differently, so you have to invest in propaganda. A concept has been invented that you have to resist, blame everything on the EU and say that it is the European Union that makes these electricity and gas bills grow so much – summed up one of the WP.pl informants.

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Gazeta.pl declined to offer to publish advertisements of state-owned companies on electricity prices. The loud campaign appears in online and traditional media, as well as on billboards all over Poland. We did not agree to its publication because the content of the campaign is misleading and contrary to the values ​​of Gazeta.pl, including reliable information on climate change.