The international organization EuroNatur, the Polish ecology association EKO-UNIA and the German nature protection organization BUND filed a complaint with the European Commission on Thursday, November 17, 2022 “against further destruction of the precious river ecosystem”. . The works on the Oder are carried out by the Polish side.

According to environmental organizations, the river regulation projects violate several European Union directives, including the Water Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive. As environmentalists point out, the Polish authorities approved the project without carrying out a sufficient environmental impact assessment, which is also a violation of EU law. “Although construction works are taking place on the Polish side of the river, it can be assumed that these activities will also affect the German NATURA 2000 sites. This impact has either been ignored or insufficiently taken into account in the environmental impact assessment “. environmentalists say in a statement.

“This summer we saw exactly what can happen to an overexploited river,” says Annette Spangenberg, conservation manager at EuroNatur. – The massive interventions currently planned by the Polish government will also have a negative impact on the German side, especially since no measures have been taken to prevent or compensate for these impacts.

nature will suffer

According to German environmentalists, important parts of the environmental impact assessment have not been translated into German, which prevents the German side from commenting on Polish projects. Conservationists also point out that the Oder is one of the last great quasi-natural rivers in Europe. There are no dams on the 500+ kilometer section and the river is surrounded by riparian forests. According to environmentalists, plans to regulate and deepen the river for the construction of a navigation channel will negatively affect the ecosystem of the Oder. The habitats of endangered and protected bird and animal species will suffer.

The Polish government justifies the work carried out on the Oder by flood protection. However, conservationists believe that this is just a pretext and that it is in fact to increase the possibilities of inland navigation.

Stop development

– Since 2016, we have been complaining about the Oder sewerage system to the European Commission and the World Bank, which are involved in financing the investment. The disaster of the summer proved that we were right: not only non-governmental organizations, but all leading Polish and German scientists demand a stop to the transformation of the still wild and free-flowing Oder into a navigable channel . Improving the condition of the river means restoring it, not regulating it – comments Radosław Gawlik, president of the EKO-UNIA association.

For his part, Olaf Bandt, president of the German organization BUND, calls on the European institutions to act as quickly as possible. – We ask the European Commission to do everything possible to achieve this in exchange with the Polish government and to immediately stop the use of EU funds for the sewerage system of the Oder – believes Bandt.

Interviews with the World Bank

The issue of financing the expansion of the Oder has long been controversial. Most of the funds come from a loan from the World Bank. According to the daily “Maerkische Oderzeitung” (MOZ), last Tuesday (November 14, 2022) Polish and German parliamentarians and local officials met in Brussels with the head of the European section of the World Bank to explain that the funds allocated to work on the ‘Oder are used for the development of the river for navigation, not for flood protection. The German-Polish delegation included: Ska Keller, member of the European Parliament, Sahra Damus, member of the Green Party in the Parliament of Brandenburg, Przemysław Słowik, a councilor from Szczecin, and Beata Bliska, a representative of the Green Party.

According to “MOZ”, during the talks in Brussels, politicians were to learn that Poland had repeatedly indicated to the World Bank the need to expand the project to include maritime transport. However, he had to reject these requests. “The World Bank wants to re-examine the project and see exactly what the funds are for. Funding can be frozen in principle. But the World Bank is not ready for that yet,” Sahra Damus, Green MP for Brandenburg, told MOZ.