Roads not Rights!
“State of Emergency” to be imposed in Poland

Poland is privileged to have relatively few motorways compared to almost everywhere else in Europe, but with EU accession looming, the possibility that the government would keep it this way and instigate a programme of strengthening the national rail network was never very likely. In 1994, Poland unveiled an ambitious plan to build 2,600 kilometres of new motorways over the next 10 to 15 years,
but ever since then, the Polish government’s programme has limped along, falling ever further behind schedule, mainly due to lack of money in the public purse. This is deeply unsatisfactory for those who would use these roads to transport goods from Germany and Scandinavia through to Russia and elsewhere. Four of the nine priority Trans-European Transport Corridors planned by the European Union lead through Poland. Kazimierz Przelomski, principal banker in Poland for the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), one of the funders of road programmes, has emphasized the importance of Poland for Western European trade interests. "Definitely it is important because of the geographical location of Poland, its proximity to Germany and transit route for Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union. The size of Poland and the significance for the Nordic countries is evident if one looks at the map." The Polish government, along with much of the population, is convinced that roads are the key to prosperity for Poland, and the continuing lack of construction has become embarrassing and frustrating. Something must be done…

Any time now, the Polish government will almost certainly impose a new and extremely drastic law in order to get the motorways constructed more quickly and cheaply:
Information about highway-building plans will not be available to the public
It will be forbidden for the courts to interfere when highway investors break the law (which they often do)
In order to save money, investors will not have to carry out environmental impact assessments
The people living along the route of the future motorway will be forced to sell their homes for the price proposed by the investor and biodiverse areas will be allowed to be destroyed with no compensation.
If this happens, those opposing road-building will have no means to fight on legal grounds, so the law is effectively suspending the right to protest.

Ecological organisations in Poland are of course opposing this move, but with the combined forces of the government, public opinion, big business, EU, World Bank, and EBRD all in favour of pushing the roads along, the chances of success are slim.

Among all the discussion of the necessity of motorways, what is still not clear is what good will come of it for Poland itself. Of course there will be some employment for those building the roads, but it seems likely that this will be quite little compared to the amount of destruction wrought. Poland is already becoming overrun with mas-produced consumer goods and hypermarkets, which are starting to lead to lower quality food, bankruptcy of small farmers, and the demise of small shops and markets and thus further unemployment, and this trend can only be accelerated by huge roads allowing faster, effectively subsidised movement of goods over long distances. In addition, it seems that most of the freight on the roads will be moving through and not around Poland, and that Poland therefore will suffer the environmental and public health consequences of the roads without corresponding benefits to its own people. Poland still has many beautiful and diverse areas, but the Rospuda river and the Biebrzanski National Park are both threatened by the Via Baltica, planned to run from Warsaw to Tallinn. Polish taxpayers is paying for roads which they themselves will hardly use, whilst health care and education budgets have been slashed and funds diverted to the roads effort. There has seldom been a clearer illustration of the importance of roads for big business, the lengths to which governments will go to get them built in the name of attracting investment, and the insanity of taxpayers subsidising long distance transport at the expense of local economies.

Any comments to :
President Aleksander Kwasniewski
Krakowskie Przedmiescie 48/50,
00-071 Warszawa, Poland
Fax: (+4822) 695-22-38
listy@prezydent.pl

Prime Minister Leszek Miller,
Prezes Rady Ministrow
Al. Ujazdowskie 1/3,
00-583 Warsaw, Poland
cirinfo@kprm.gov.pl

For more information on the campaign against motorway construction and later direct action, contact: ORE Citizens' Environmental Movement ul. Prochnika 1 / 301 90-408 LODZ POLAND phone/fax: (48) 42 6301749 email: pbielski@ore.most.org.pl