Informacja prasowa - 12 grudnia, 2017
Warsaw/Luxembourg, 12 December, 2017 - The hearing about the Polish state logging the Białowieża Forest was held today at the European Court of Justice. The European Commission wants Poland to stop cutting down and removing trees from one of the last remaining stands of primeval forest in lowland Europe and states that Polish Environment Minister, Jan Szyszko, violated European law by increasing felling in the Białowieża Forest, home to many endangered species, including the European Bison.
Katarzyna Jagiełło from Greenpeace Poland, said:
"Szyszko’s stubborn pursuit of destroying our common heritage and national treasure forced the European Commission to sue Poland to compel it to comply with EU law.
Courageous people from the region and all over the world who lent their voices and bodies to protect this precious, ancient and diminishing forest need to see the European Commission stand with us."
In July 2017, the European Commission decided to take Poland to the European Court of Justice for increasing logging in the Białowieża Forest, which is a protected Natura 2000 and a UNESCO World Heritage site. As logging has started on a significant scale this summer, the Commission requested that the Court introduce interim measures compelling Poland to suspend the logging immediately. In November, the ECJ decided to implement an interim ban on logging and announced that a penalty of at least € 100 000 per each day will be imposed if Poland continues to log and remove trees. After this decision heavy logging machinery was withdrawn from the forest, but Mr. Szyszko continued to claim that logging in Białowieża Forest is in line with the European Law.
This is the first and probably the last hearing in the main case. The Court’s final ruling will be known few weeks after 20th February 2018, when the Advocate General’s opinion is expected.