Posted on December, 04 2003

Warsaw, Poland - Following several months of concerted campaigning from environmental groups and today's recommendations from the Bern Convention Standing Committee in Strasbourg, Polish authorities will be required to complete a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) before deciding on a route for the controversial Via Baltica expressway. Prior to campaigners raising the alarm to the Council of Europe, the routing decision was due to have been made without consideration for Polish and European law, environmental issues, or standard social consultation processes. The development of the Via Baltica expressway, which will link Warsaw with Helsinki, may have serious impacts on four sites of EU importance for the conservation of birds, other animals, plants and habitats in Poland (1). In particular, environmental groups have been concerned about the lack of proposed route alternatives for the upgrading of the Ostrow Mazowiecka – Suwalki section of the current road to expressway status. The route preferred by the Polish government, via Bialystok, would impact on these sites and contravenes the Bern Convention. There is an optional route, bypassing these sites, which would cross the city of Lomza. A report prepared by OTOP (Polish partner of BirdLife International), WWF Poland, and CEE Bankwatch Network provoked a fact-finding trip to the area in October this year from Professor Eckhart Kuijken, an independent expert from the Council of Europe. Kuijken’s subsequent report confirms that the route option via Bialystok will cause significantly more ecological problems than the Lomza route. The findings of the Kuijken report fed into today's recommendations to the Polish government from the Bern Convention Standing Committee. Chief among these is that all possible Via Baltica route options need to be assessed via an SEA for the first Pan-European Transport Corridor Budzisko-Warsaw, taking full account of economic, ecological, and social factors. From the start, the Polish NGOs involved in this campaign have aimed to make the Via Baltica decision-making process publicly accountable. Paweł Płonczkier of OTOP, who took part in the Bern Convention Standing Committee as a representative of BirdLife International, said: "I am convinced that these recommendations to the Polish government were warranted. I hope we do not make the same mistakes as other European Union countries by destroying this priceless wildlife heritage which is of national and international importance." For further information: Paweł Płonczkier Ogólnopolskie Towarzystwo Ochrony Ptaków (OTOP) Tel.: +48 603773698 E-mail: pawel.plonczkier@otop.org.pl Małgorzata Znaniecka WWF Poland Tel.: +48 604261525 E-mail: mznaniecka@wwf.pl Robert Cyglicki CEE Bankwatch Network Tel. +48 609686793 E-mail: robertc@bankwatch.org Notes: 1. The sites are the Biebrza and Narew National Parks and the Augustow and Knyszyn Forests. These sites hold internationally important wildlife and extensive habitats listed in the Annexes of the Birds and Habitats Directives and are eligible for designation as Natura 2000 sites.