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, (
Petr Pospisil, Public-Private Partnership in TEM
financing, European Conference of Ministers of Transport).

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.”
(Central / Eastern Europe: EU Plans Solutions To
Transport Problems, by Kitty McKinsey Radio Free Europe / Radio
Liberty).

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 not have any means to fight on legal
grounds at all, and 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
mass-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. The Polish taxpayer is
paying for roads which s/he himself 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.