The European Union's top court said on Monday Poland would be fined 100,000 euros a day if it did not stop large-scale logging in the Bialowieza forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Warsaw has been locked in a legal battle with the EU for months over Bialowieza, sitting on the border between Poland and Belarus and home to European bison as well as rare birds. The nationalist, socially conservative Polish government tripled logging quotas there despite protests by environmental groups and criticism from Brussels that it was violating the bloc's wildlife protection rules.
The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Monday reiterated its July stance that Poland must stop the logging immediately pending a final ruling in a case the EU's Brussels-based executive brought in front of the tribunal. Poland has said the logging is needed to ensure the safety of people who pick mushrooms in the forest, among others, where trees have been weakened by a beetle outbreak. After a protracted back-and-forth between the European Commission in Brussels, Warsaw and the court, the ECJ said in a statement that Poland had another 15 days to prove it was sticking to the ban on the logging, except for very few specific cases where public security would indeed be at risk. It would then be up to the Commission to assess, and it could turn to the court again if it believed Warsaw was still breaking EU laws. "The Court will then decide ... whether today's order has been infringed. If there is found to be an infringement, the Court will order Poland to pay to the Commission a penalty payment of at least 100,000 euros per day," it said, counting from Monday's notification.
Poland reacted coolly to a warning it could incur fines for continuing to log in the Bialowieza forest saying on Tuesday its actions were lawful.
Speaking to radio Wnet in the government's first response to the court, environment minister Jan Szyszko did not make clear whether Poland planned to halt logging to avoid the fine, but added: "We fulfil the tribunal's recommendations 100 percent."
"We will be doing everything to avoid the fines," Poland's Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told radio RMF.
When asked at a conference whether Poland would stop logging in Bialowieza to avoid the fines, Szyszko replied "Why are you talking about logging?" and did not provide a clear answer.
Szyszko considers "logging" as unsuitable description of state-approved actions in Bialowieza. The ministry has referred to "sanitary cutting" or "actions taken" in the forest. The minister also said there is no risk Poland will have to pay the fine as it observes EU law and the court's decision. Szyszko reiterated that the actions in Bialowieza were aimed only at guaranteeing the safety of visitors. Konrad Tomaszewski, the head of State Forests, a state-run company managing most of Polish forests, said it had decided to stop using heavy vehicle-born cutting equipment to cut down trees in Bialowieza as they were no longer needed.
The row feeds into a wider clash between the EU and its biggest eastern member where the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is accused of undermining democratic standards, including weakening judicial independence. What the EU says is Warsaw disregarding the ECJ's decisions adds to rule of law worries clouding Poland's image. The key sponsor for the logging is Poland's Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, a conservative linked to a politically combative wing in the Polish Catholic Church, and a keen hunter himself.
Szyszko approved a tripling of the quota of wood that can be harvested in one of three administrative areas of the Bialowieza Forest in March 2016, triggering environmentalists' protests and dividing Polish society.
Źródło: Reuters