EU steps up pressure on Polish road work in fragile forests

(BRUSSELS) - EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas stepped up pressure on Poland Wednesday over a planned road in an environmentally protected part of the country, vowing court action if the works do not stop.

In a final warning to Warsaw, the European Commission gave Polish authorities a week to halt the works or else it would take the case before the European Court of Justice.

"If Poland fails to respond in a timely and satisfactory manner the commission will consider taking urgent action and requesting the European Court of Justice to look at the case and also to issue an order suspending the works pending a hearing," Dimas told journalists.

The European Union's executive arm launched legal action in December against Warsaw for violating EU environment protection rules with its plans to build parts of the so-called Via Baltica road corridor in protected areas.

Dimas said that while he supported upgrades to the country's road network, he could not accept that improvements came at the cost of damage to a "precious national heritage".

Dozens of activists are camping out in the forest to block the possible arrival of bulldozers and some have taken to the tops of what would be the first trees to go under the chainsaw.

The planned stretch of highway is part of the so-called Via Baltica corridor, which is meant to smooth the way for increasing road trade between eastern and western Europe.

Polish authorities also say they want to ease the burden on the nearby town of Augustow, which has to cope with 4,500 heavy goods vehicles a day.

They argue that they have done their best to reduce the environmental impact, because the planned 40-kilometre (25-mile) route would include a 300-500 metre (yard) bridge across the Rospuda Valley.

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Friday that he favoured a local referendum to settle the question of whether to build the highway.

Poland, a political heavyweight among the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004, has taken an increasingly defiant stand on a number of European issues, ranging from protecting the environment to breaking a public deficit limit to enforcing telecommunications regulations.