Another year passed. It sounds banal – I wrote the same a year ago – however, indeed it was another difficult but also a successful period for us.

In the initial months of 2006 we will learn the company exact annual results but we already know that we have made profit at least at the level of the ones for the previous year. This time these will be results without several dozen millions from released reserve thus – as it is easy to figure out – they will reliably reflect our year-long work. I hope that even at the end of this year we will manage to complete formalities connected with selecting an organiser of bonds emission for construction of the block in Łagisza, and at the same time to guarantee financing of this undertaking. Due to this construction works in our plant in Będzin, expected for so long, will commence soon.

Consolidation of our two mines was also a success. Results achieved by Południowy Koncern Węglowy (the Southern Poland Coal Company) in the first months of its operation allow for thinking with optimism about the company future and confirm that our concept of creating fuel and power structures was right.

There are also unsettled issues. In 2005 we did not manage to successfully conclude negotiations on establishing a production and distribution complex. I hope that we will resume negotiations on capital relations between energy producers and distributors as there is no other way to prepare for efficient competition in the European market. The programme of the present government which see a chance for the power industry in consolidation will be an important argument in the negotiations.

Unfortunately, still a serious problem lies in unsettled ecological issues. It is already known that after 2008 we will not meet provisions of the Treaty of Accession and tough ecological directives. If we did, Poland could run out of domestic energy or its price could rise dramatically.