No millions for Metro
Shortly before he cleared out his desk on his last day in office, the former Minister of Economy and Labor, Jacek Piechota, took a decision not to include the Metro under schemes that will benefit from the Integrated Regional Operational Program.
The Minister's move was largely influenced by a National Steering Committee recommendation. Within this body, which represents the most developed regions, it was mainly votes by the Left Social Alliance, Civic Platform and the Peasants' Party that decided to demote the project to 10th place in the ranking of projects competing for EU funds within the Integrated Regional Operational Program. However, as recently as the beginning of September, the project was ranked fifth by the Ministry of Economy and Labor.
"The Minister's decision stemmed from the necessity of providing a harmonious and balanced development of the Polish urban area," said a statement from the Ministry. It says the Metro project, being in last position, has to be placed on the backburner. Still, it will be passed to the European Commission, which might consider co-financing the project should any funding surplus appear.
The Warsaw authorities, many of which are involved with Law and Justice, are furious and claim the decision is a political one. City Hall's spokesperson, Marcin Roszkowski, claims the decision was not content-related at all. He stresses in his statement that the Metro was many times presented to European Commission representatives, who were very impressed with it. He argues that the EC expressed its anxiety about the slow procedure of accessing the project in Poland.
Roszkowski said that Piechota's decision means the Warsaw Metro will get zł.24 million instead of the zł.351.1 million it applied for. This throws the planned expansion of the Metro, to the suburbs of Bródno and Bemowo within eight years, into doubt.
Among the nine projects that qualified for a share of the zł.441 million are modernizing the tram route on al. Jerozolimskie (zł.97 million), the Warsaw Integrated Traffic Management System (zł.40 million), and the regional tram system in Łód (zł.108 million).
Agnieszka Barteczko
