Poland halts ‘Via Baltica’ highway plan

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has ordered the suspension of works on a contested highway running through protected wetlands in Poland after the Commission asked for urgent measures to be taken by the European Court of Justice.

The construction of a road running through the Rospuda valley, a natural site protected under the EU’s Natura 2000 programme, is to be suspended until EU judges rule on its legality, Kaczynski said on 31 July. 

The announcement, made on Polish radio, still needs to be confirmed officially, a spokesperson for the European Commission commented later on. 

“The work in the Rospuda valley will not start,” Kaczynski told a Polish radio, adding that construction on other sections of the road will go ahead. “We simply have to show patience,” he added, saying that he believed the Commission had no legal basis to challenge the project. 

In July 2007, the Polish government announced that the construction of the ‘Via Baltica’ motorway between Prague and Helsinki would start on 1 August as planned (EURACTIV 18/07/07), despite warnings from the European Commission and a court action launched in March (EURACTIV 1/03/07). 

The latest saw the Commission request the European Court of Justice to issue an urgent order on 30 July 2007 to prevent the work from going ahead until EU judges rule on the case.

The highway is seen as an important infrastructure project to improve the connection between the EU’s Central European States. Nevertheless, even if the Commission said that it supported the upgrading of the road in Poland, it does not accept that the irreversible damage that will be caused by the bypasses is either necessary or justified.

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