Polish court blocks eco-unfriendly freeway

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2007

WARSAW (AFP) — A controversial plan to build a freeway through virgin forest in northeast Poland hit a roadblock Thursday when a court cancelled its construction permit, the PAP news agency reported.

The project in the Rospuda Valley, near the border with Lithuania, had been hotly contested by the European Commission, which was threatening to go ahead with a suit lodged at the European Court of Justice.

Environmental groups such as Greenpeace also staged demonstrations earlier this year to protest the road, which they said would destroy the area's fragile ecosystem.

Thursday's verdict by the administrative tribunal means Poland's environment ministry, which had given the go-ahead for construction, will now have to consider the more costly option of digging a...