PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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chiefly guided by political and/or Keynesian pro-investment rationales (exemplified by
the Polish as well as some EU governments). Assuming larger “structural” benefits, the
latter are always less concerned about the particular financial costs and benefits of
individual infrastructure projects. 20
However, as Judge (2000:488) concluded in a recent
review of the regional and environmental dimensions of Polish motorway policy,
despite government rhetoric about the regional benefits of the motorway system, there
is no published research on where these benefits might arise. … Instead, the strategic
development aspects have de facto been submerged by financing issues, the drive to
enter the European Union and controversy over the environmental impact.
Lastly, it should be obvious that the World Bank’s suggestion to privilege
highway investments in the Pan-European corridors around Warsaw was of course well
suited to the EU’s strategic interests.
The Polish government remained reluctant to give up its vast motorway
ambitions, however. It is highly revealing that in this context, TINA was portrayed by
the Polish government as an “EU initiative” that is “encouraging” a particular set of
infrastructures, and not as the Pan-European effort to deliver an objective CEE needs
assessment that it purported to be. Otherwise, the government showed itself amenable to
various reform ideas in the rail and public transport sectors, but firm in its commitment
towards motorway construction. Finally, the government also made it very clear that the
NGOs’ renunciation-type demands of advocating lower levels of traffic stood no chance
under the current political regime. 21
20 Remember that there are increasing empirical challenges to this Keynesian governmental pro-growth
infrastructure-building argument (also see the relevant sections of chapters 2 and 6).
21 The actual summary points presented by the Polish government during the debate over the Alternative
Transport Policy were as follows (Attachment 2, World Bank 1999:34):
Yes, the Ministry will take environmental concerns into account.
It will be hard to stop the motorway program.