WRITTEN QUESTION E-2476/02

by Elizabeth Lynne (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 September 2002)

Subject: Protecting a National Park in Poland

Does the Commission have any safeguard measures which it may apply so as to ensure that the Polish Government does not start building the Via Baltica expressway across the Biebrza National Park and other key sites of conservation importance in northern Poland before a comprehensive strategic Environmental Impact Assessment is completed?

Does the Commission have any plans to help the Polish Government to assess alternative routing options for the Via Baltica corridor so as to avoid the potentially harmful impact of the currently preferred route on the Biebrza National Park and other key sites?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(18 October 2002)

There is no doubt that the Biebrza National Park in Poland is of great value and deserves protection.

The Honourable Member will be aware that from a legal point of view candidate states are not obliged to fully comply with the acquis until the date of accession. However, since the beginning of the accession negotiations, the Commission has insisted that all new infrastructure investments in the candidate countries should comply with Community environmental law. On that basis Poland should, for all its transport infrastructure projects, including those that make up the Via Baltica, comply with the relevant Directives on nature protection (92/43/EEC, 79/409/EEC).

Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992, on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora(1) and Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds(2) will apply to Poland as soon as it becomes a Member State of the Union. This means that, upon accession, the protection foreseen in Article 6(2), (3) and (4) of Directive 92/43/EEC will apply for all sites included in the list of sites eligible as sites of Community importance, as well as for all sites designated as a Special Protection Area under Directive 79/409/EEC.

Moreover Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment(3) will need to be transposed by all Member States [current and new] by 21 July 2004. The Directive will apply to plans and programmes for which the first formal preparatory act is submitted on or after that date. Projects already foreseen and for which plans are submitted prior to this date will consequently not be retroactively covered by this new Directive.

It therefore follows that although Directive 2001/42/EC is part of the EU environmental acquis, which should be transposed by all new acceding States, where plans for the Via Baltica have been submitted prior to 21 July 2004, the provisions of the Directive would not yet be in force. It is therefore doubtful whether and to which extent this Directive will need to be applied for the Via Baltica expressway across the Biebrza National Park.

Under Directives 92/43/EEC and 79/409/EEC, the question of possible alternative routings arises only in specific circumstances, namely, if, despite a negative assessment of the implications for a protected site, imperative reasons of overriding public interest justify the carrying out of the project. The Commission is not aware at which stage of the process the planning of the motorway currently stands and will contact the Polish authorities on this issue for their assurance that all necessary environmental requirements have been complied with.

In this context the Commission draws the attention of the Honourable Member to its responses to Written Questions P-1648/02 by Mr Huhne and E-1694/02 by Mr Meijer(4), E-1968/02 by Mr Davies(5) and E-2284/02 by Mr Xarchakos and Mr Dimitrakopoulos(6), confirming that neither PHARE nor ISPA funds have been provided for the construction of the Via Baltica across the Biebrza marshes in north-east Poland. Furthermore, such a project features in neither the ISPA nor the PHARE project pipeline and, therefore, no request for Union support for this particular project has been made by the Polish authorities. Should the Commission receive such a request, the project will be examined in the light of the relevant Community environmental rules.

(1) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.

(2) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.

(3) OJ L 197, 21.7.2001.

(4) OJ C 301 E, 5.12.2002, p. 201.

(5) OJ C 309 E, 12.12.2002, p. 181.

(6) OJ C 161 E, 10.7.2003, p. 20.