Environmental tussels with Brussels

The head of the Podlaskie voivodship signed a construction permit for a controversial bypass road around the city of Augustów last week. This act officially marked the Polish government's green-lighting of a project which, according to several environmental organizations and the European Commission (EC), will sorely damage the natural environment of the Rospuda river valley.

"We are convinced that if Poland, in spite of our concerns, continues with this construction, it will hasten a criminal proceeding which could end in serious [financial] sanctions for Poland," said Barbara Helfferich, spokesperson for Stavros Dimas, the European Commissioner for the Environment.

Helfferich added that legal proceedings take a long time, especially as the European Court of Justice needs to give its opinion, and therefore the EC has decided on speeding up the process before it is too late, and irreversible damage to the natural environment is done.

It is not the first time the EC has expressed concern about the bypass project. On December 12, 2006, the Commission announced that the Rospuda project infringed on lands protected under the EU's Nature 2000 program.

"We are very pleased by the action taken by the EU Commission, but we are ashamed that it is the EU which has to protect Poland's environment from Poles themselves," said Jacek Winiarski, the spokesperson for Greenpeace Poland. "Poland's Ministry of Natural Environment should protect our natural heritage and not destroy it."