91热爆

Mardell's Eurobog

• Mark Mardell
• 30 Aug 07, 07:59 PM

Mired, or even enmired, has always been one of my favourite words. Doubtless many times I have myself been metaphorically in the mire. But today I was quite literally enmired in the peat bogs of north-eastern Poland, as my wellies sank deep into this unique habitat of the short-toed eagle and spotted crake.

Luckily my producer Jo Mathys and Malgorzata Znaniecka from the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds were on hand to gallantly drag me out...

The area is not only home to various rare species of birds but is, according to some ecologists, one of the last remaining peat bogs in Europe. But the Polish government wants to build a bypass, and a bridge would go near the area where I fell over.

It鈥檚 one of those actually rather frequent cases where even if I didn鈥檛 have to be balanced and neutral (as the 91热爆 demands), I would find it difficult to make a call one way or the other.

While Malgorzata makes her case with passion, so does the mayor of the nearby town of Augustow, Leszek Cieslik. He insists the motorway route and the bridge over the Rospuda river have been carefully considered and will do as little damage as possible. He makes the point that wherever one builds roads in this part of unspoilt Poland the environment will suffer.

The hard politics of this is that the environmentalists are appealing to European Union rules to stop this route, and the Polish government is having to answer to the European Court of Justice.

Does the EU, in effect Poland鈥檚 26 partner countries, have a moral right to tell Poland where to build its roads? Have your say now or make your mind up after reading my . You can also listen to my radio report on PM or the World Service.

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On the Polish road

• Mark Mardell
• 30 Aug 07, 12:49 PM

After six hours on the road and nearly 200km to go, I have some sympathy with Poland鈥檚 road lobby. I鈥檓 going to investigate the Rospuda Valley, where because of plans to build a bypass around the town of Augustow, to complete a new motorway. After complaints to the European Union, construction has been stopped until the European Court of Justice has made a ruling.

There are of course dual carriageways in Poland but many roads are two-lane, some of them with narrow hard shoulder areas to each side. After furiously beeping one car that appeared to be heading straight for me, I was gently told the rule of the road here is to swing over on to the hard shoulder to allow overtaking. I think I鈥檓 getting the hang of it but it鈥檚 a perilous business.

We鈥檝e travelled past beautiful lakes and woods but the most common sight is the back of a lorry. I didn鈥檛 know there were so many lorries in the world. At the moment we are stuck behind what appears to be a four-wheel tractor with a flat-bed back. We are the third car in a convoy overtaking it but a people carrier is making a foolhardy manoeuvre and overtaking the other cars as well. (No, I鈥檓 not driving as I write this.)

The journey, and my temper, were enlivened by a detour of some four hours to interview a minister. His spokesman assured us he spoke excellent English and did interviews in English. Indeed, his English is fluent. But he would only speak in Polish, pointing out that it was a very beautiful language. Indeed it is, but not many listeners of Radio 4鈥檚 PM programme understand it, and that鈥檚 who we are doing the interview for.

Of course, I鈥檓 perfectly happy for politicians to refuse to speak English out of national pride or caution about their use of language but had I known I would have interviewed another minister in Warsaw in Polish, and saved myself a 6am start and a drive to Augustow that in the end took nearly 14 hours, with breaks.

Anyway, enough whining from me. His argument was that the motorway wouldn鈥檛 damage this landscape and the unique peat bog was only preserved in the first place by man鈥檚 action in building a dam and canal in1823 and trenches dug during the war.

Many Poles want the road, and I am told don鈥檛 like what they see as EU 鈥渋nterference鈥�.

I鈥檒l put that to the environmentalists when I see them, tomorrow or the next day.

In the meantime what about this magazine cover as more evidence of a common Polish attitude towards the Germans... a picture of Hitler standing outside the modern German parliament with the headline, 鈥淲ho did the Germans steal their wealth from?鈥�

Mark's report from the Rospuda Valley, the first of three on the European Union鈥檚 role in environmental protection, will be aired on the PM programme and published simultaneously on the 91热爆 News website on Friday.

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