POLAND/BELGIUM: EU sends urgent letter to Poland to stop controversial highway plan

The European commission says it will speed up infringement proceedings against Poland over her plan to build a section of an international motorway linking Warsaw to Helsinki via the Baltic states, unless it gets a positive response to a urgent letter sent today. The highway will go through one of Europe's unique peat lands, home to rare plants and animals. The European Commission may ask the EU's highest court to stop a controversial Polish motorway planned for a protected area, if Warsaw presses ahead with the project. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Tuesday (February 20) he had personally warned Polish Environment Minister Jan Szyszko that Brussels could seek to stop the construction through a court order and he would send a letter to Warsaw later in the day asking for a suspension of the project. "If we do not have a positive reaction from the Polish government to the letter that I am going to send today, from Poland, then we shall start accelerated procedure and it should be done as soon as possible time framework in order to avoid and avert irreparable destruction of the habitats in that area of Poland," he said. Dimas' spokeswoman said a court order could be issued very quickly if requested, and Poland would face tens of millions of euros in fines if it ignored it. "One of the consequences could be that they have to stop the works anyway and then wait until legal proceedings have taken their course," said European Environment Commission spokeswoman Barbara Helferrich. "There could be a fine at the end of the day and that could be rather substantial. And, apart from the fine, it is not good practice for a new member state to be so blatantly against EU legislation. I would think that the Polish people would not support that," Helferrich said, suggesting the fine could reach into the tens of millions. The European Union has warned the road-building project would jeopardise Poland's commitment to protecting its nature reserves. Critics said the project threatened the northeastern Rospuda Valley which is one of Europe's unique peat lands and home to plants and animals rarely found elsewhere in the country. Forming part of an international motorway linking Warsaw to Helsinki via the Baltic states, the ring-road scheme would include a 500-metre flyover across the valley where numerous species of migratory birds nest. Protesters have gathered at a site on the highway's route, setting up camp in a bid to stop construction. "We came from all over Poland to protest against the Augustow bypass running through Rospuda Valley. We think there is another, better option. We also agree with the residents of Augustow, that they absolutely deserve a bypass," Greenpeace protester Magda Figura said. "We set up the camp exactly where the forest will be cut down. We hope that our protest will stop the work," she added. But around seven hundred and fifty residents of Augustow, a town which would benefit the most from the road walked the streets in protest against the activists on Monday (February 19). Most are afraid they will lose the last chance for a safe road to run through a region where driving is dangerous due to poorly maintained and winding roads. The route is popular among truck drivers as the shortest way from Germany to the Baltic states and the Russian Kaliningrad region. One of the protesters Leszek Czokajlo, a member of Augustow town council, claims that just a section of the existing road to Augustow claims the lives of animals and humans alike. "Not only people die on this road. According to statistics, 150 out of 5000 traffic related deaths in Poland are recorded on this road annually. That is one in twenty deaths nation wide," Czokajlo explained. The protesters in Augustow used grim evidence for their arguments. Trucks filled with car wrecks rolled onto the street, a symbol of how dangerous the local roads can be.

ITN Source | February 21, 2007

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