Money for roads, but no agreement on how to spend it

Poland already has permission to begin spending EUR67 billion allocated from EU funds for 2007-2013, but the way in which this money will be spent is yet to be agreed on. The Ministry of Finance though, says it has found a way which would allow it to finance preparatory works for the investments. "In March we proposed to the Ministry of Transport that we will issue documents promising future payments from the funds which would allow road investment preparations to begin," said deputy Finance Minister Elzbieta Suchocka-Roguska. "But we did not get any documents from the Ministry of Transport." The Minister of Transport Jerzy Polaczek says otherwise, however, declaring that no answers to their requests for payment had been received. The dispute has to be resolved quickly as the bank accounts of the agency responsible for the construction of motorways in Poland (the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways - GDDKiA) are empty. The agency does not even have the money to buy land for the planned investments. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B3) E.B.