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Better late than never – Release of environmental consent for the Augustow bypass confirms that the Rospuda Valley is safe

On December 29, the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Bialystok, Poland released the environmental consent for the Augustow bypass. The consent confirms that the road, part of the new Via Baltica corridor, will bypass the Augustow Primeval Forest Natura 2000 site and the magnificent Rospuda Valley.

This news should finally bring an end to a long-running saga that has seen Poland clash with the European Commisson over the potential abuse of EU environmental law which, as a result, has led to increased safety risks and inconvenience for the residents of Augustow that still have to contend with large volumes of heavy goods vehicles traversing the north-east Polish town.

As Malgorzata Gorska, IBA Casework Officer for the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds (one of the groups with whom Bankwatch has intensively collaborated on the case) points out: “As a result of mistakes made by previous authorities and the necessity of a new alternative analysis, the environmental consent for the Augustow bypass is three years late. Ensuring these sensible changes to the Via Baltica routing has taken us six years. Everything costs Poland too much energy and time.”

The Augustow bypass stands, then, as a textbook bad example of how reckless disregard for the natural environment – and for the EU environmental law designed to protect it – is in nobody’s best interest. The case should serve as a startling wake-up call to infrastructure developers across central and eastern Europe. Read on for more details about how sense has finally won out on the routing of the bypass.

Releasing the new environmental consent for Augustow bypass was important for many reasons. The ’consent’ issued in 2007:

The current route, laid out in this latest decision, bypasses the Augustow Primeval Forest Natura 2000 site. The marsh valley of the Rospuda River has also not been compromised. The flyover across the Rospuda river next to the Raczki village will not impact the valuable fens.

The northern section of the bypass will be part of the 2-lane international Via Baltica expressroad leading from Budzisko at the Polish-Lithuanian border to Lomza and Warsaw. The southern section, in the direction of Augustow and Bialystok, will be part of a single-lane national road.

If the relevant authorities, including the Polish Road Agency, treat the investment as a priority and the tender is announced early in 2010, the opening of the new, 40 km long bypass (for Augustow and Suwalki) will be possible in 3 years’ time.

Marta Majka Wisniewska, of Polish Green Network and National Coordinator of CEE Bankwatch Network, commented: “The realisation of the bypass could now be aided with co-financing from the EU funds. It would be a symbolic end of the case, in which the European Commission and European Parliament were involved. With the Natura 2000 site now safe, there is no obstacle to support this road investment with EU Cohesion Fund money.”

The environment groups that have been closely involved in the case believe that the experience with the Augustow bypass and Via Baltica expressroad will help regional authorities, politicians and investors in future during decisions-making processes for other major infrastructure projects. These include a regional airport whose currently proposed siting is being challenged by its potential impacts on Natura 2000 sites in north-east Poland.

Marta Majka Wisniewska said: “This new environmental consent for the Augustow bypass is a New Year’s gift for all the people world-wide that were fighting to protect the Rospuda Valley, all those who were freezing in the camp defending the valley in 2007, were writing petitions and complaints, were wearing green ribbons as a symbol of support or who were simply crossing their fingers.”

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