EU and Poland square up for fight over green issues

BRUSSELS - The European Commission has engaged in a high-profile environment fight with Poland, taking on a government that is increasingly wont to challenge Brussels.

Environment commissioner Stavros Dimos stepped up the legal pressure on Warsaw on Wednesday (28 February) saying it must stop plans to build a road through the Rospuda river valley in north-east Poland.

In an especially-convened press conference in Brussels, the commissioner said that he had "accelerated" normal procedures giving Poland one week to fall in line with the commission's wishes

"We have to find a solution to conserve this unique treasure of Poland and Europe," he said of the peat bog and virgin forest, home to a wide variety of animals and plants.

If Poland has done nothing by next Wednesday (7 March), Mr Dimas said he would take the matter before the EU's top court, adding that Polish offers of compensatory measures for the area, such as planting trees, were "weak and unconvincing."

He also said he would ask for a court injunction to get work on the highway halted while the court rules on the issue.

The fight over the controversial 17 km stretch of road – part of the via Baltica highway linking Poland to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - has been brewing for some time.

The commission sent a letter to the Polish authorities in December warning it against building the road through the natural beauty spot.

Ignoring Brussels however, environment minister Jan Szyszko last week said that construction should go ahead anyway.

Defiant Poland

He is supported by prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski who last Friday snubbed Brussels by saying there should be a local referendum on the issue – although technically, whatever the result, it would not alter the fact that member states have to abide by EU law and cannot normally "referendum" their way out of it.

The first reactions to the legal threat were similarly defiant.

"The Polish government is ready to stand in front of the European Court of Justice with respect to the European Commission's actions on the Rospuda valley," transport minister Jerzy Polaczek told Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, with Warsaw feeling that it is being unduly punished for trying to get its infrastructure up to the standards of western European countries who have already destroyed much of their own wildlife and habitats.

The environment spat is just the latest in a series of events that show Poland is not prepared to bow to the Brussels establishment - be it the ranks of other member states or just the commission.

Talks on a new EU-Russia treaty have been delayed for several months with Poland blocking movement due to an unrelated meat export issue it has with Moscow.

Warsaw has also suggested it may have a referendum on joining the euro although - along with all new member states - it is legally obliged to join the single currency.

Some Polish politicians are already making noises about re-opening the – normally non-negotiable – accession treaty on the issue of eurozone membership.

Last year it blocked plans to set up an EU-wide prisoner transfer system, although it has since relented having been granted five years' leeway. Early in 2006 Poland also threatened to block an EU deal on VAT if certain sectors were not exempted.