Via Baltica - what is all the fuss about?
Destruction of precious habitat and impacts on threatened species – all of these will be the result if the Polish government allows the building of the “Via Baltica” expressway as an international transport corridor to continue on their planned route – without the proper environmental assessments.
Via Baltica is the name of the pan-European transport corridor from Helsinki to Warsaw, and the expressway is a priority for realising the vision of a seamless transportation network stretching across Europe from Portugal to Finland via Poland – the so-called Trans-European Network for Transportation.
Polish governnment with out proper assessments choose the most controversial and harmful for nature variant along road number 8, that will increase traffic flows and cause unnecessary and irreversible damage to five extremely valuable sites for the conservation of birds, other animals, plants and habitats – indeed these are Special Areas of Conservation as part of the EU’s Natura 2000 network.
CEE Bankwatch Network, along with WWF Poland and the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds (Birdlife Poland), is advocating for a proper assessment of the routing for the Via Baltica expressway in Poland. Following support from the Bern Convention Committee, these NGOs received promises from the Polish government that a strategic analysis would be carried out as a basis for the final decision on the routing of the expressway. However, Polish road number eight - the variant of Via Baltica preferred by the Polish government - currently is being gradually upgraded in direct violation of EU legislation.