BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk achieved his goal of amending an EU plan to battle climate change to ease the pain of transition for Poland's power sector, a senior government official said.
Poland was seen as one of the main obstacles to the EU's plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by a fifth by 2020, because it will prove costly for its large coal-dependent power sector.
"The prime minister achieved everything he wanted in negotiations on the climate package," the official told Reuters. "We wait of course for the confirmation on paper."
"The deal is flexible, allowing for the modernization of the Polish power sector and ensuring that there will not be any steep increase in electricity prices," the official added.
Proposals to make power generators pay for permits to pollute from 2013 are aimed at making the dirtiest plants uneconomical, but that has caused alarm in Poland, which gets over 90 percent of its power from highly polluting coal.
Tusk himself was optimistic but cautious. "We are in a good point," he told reporters. "We cannot claim success yet. Experts will work throughout the night. We are finishing tomorrow."
Poland's battle led to proposals in EU negotiations that its power sector could be handed opt-outs, alongside other big coal users, island nations and the Baltic states.
The Polish official said Poland will have to buy only 30 percent of permits in 2013, rising gradually to 100 percent in 2020.
Along with opt-outs, eastern European states are also demanding a boost to a 7.5 billion euros "solidarity fund" designed to help replace coal with green energy and nuclear, but the issue has not yet been settled.
"I still don't know what will be the percentage of...income that is to go to poorer EU members," said the official.
(Reporting by Marcin Grajewski; writing by Pete Harrison)
