MINISTER Warsaw, 5 June 2014 for infrastructure and Development Elżbieta Bieńkowska

DDA-VIIrw-4600-108/2014

Erminia Mazzoni Chair of the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament

Dear Madam Chair,

In response to letter No MM/jk/[IPOL-COM-PETI D(2014)20589] of 5 May 2014 concerning petition No 0053/2013 on the construction and modernisation of the 'Via Carpathia' road in , I hereby submit the following clarifications. The route for this road was defined in the 'Declaration on Via Carpathia', which was signed on 22 October 2012 by the then Minister for Infrastructure and Development and representatives of , , , , and , and is as follows: Klaipeda – Kaunas – Białystok – Lublin – Rzeszów – Košice – Miskolc – Debrecen – Oradea – Lugoj – /Constanţa – Sofia/Svilengrad – . The route was therefore defined in terms of direction, but not in a detailed manner. It should be noted that Poland is preparing to carry out, or is currently carrying out, a large number of road transport investments on the basis of the national road construction programme for 2011-2015 in the corridor in which the 'Via Carpathia' route is located, pursuant to the Council Resolution of 25 January 2011. Annex No 5 to the aforementioned programme sets out a list of investments which are to be financed using EU funds under the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework. The version of Annex No 5 adopted by Council Resolution No 26/2014 of 4 March 2014 covers the following sections of express roads forming part of the 'Via Carpathia' corridor: 1. Construction of the Lublin-Rzeszów section of the S19 road should be completed by 2020, since: • a tendering procedure has been announced for the following sections: Lublin bypass, Dąbrowica node – Konopnica node; Sokołów North Małopolska node (no node) – Stobierna; • a contractor agreement was signed in April 2014 for the section Świlcza – Rzeszów South node; • For the remaining sections of the S19 road from the Konopnica node to the Sokołów North node, there are plans to announce a tendering procedure in 2015. 2. The construction of the section of the S61 road running between Augustów and the national border should be completed by 2020. This section was included on the basic list of road projects registered for funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The first competition under the CEF will take place in the second half of 2014.

LT\1039187EN.doc EN EN In addition to the projects set out in Annex 5, the Augustów bypass is now in the implementation phase. The bypass being constructed is part of a larger project to build the S61 express road from Ostrów Mazowiecka to the border with Lithuania at Budzisko. As part of this enterprise, two new sections of road will be built as part of national road no. 8 and express road no. 61. Construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2014. Moreover, it should be pointed out that the following sections of the 'Via Carpathia' road corridor were put into service between 2008 and 2013. • Rzeszów West node – Świlcza, • Stobierna – Rzeszów East node, • Kock and Wola Skromowska bypass, • Międzyrzec Podlaski bypass. It should also be noted that Poland's efforts during the process of transforming the TEN-T Trans-European Transport Network into the 'Via Carpathia' road corridor, both as part of international multilateral cooperation efforts and in conjunction the EU institutions, have had a measurable impact. A significant part of this project on the Polish section was incorporated into the TEN-T network, in line with the route proposed by the seven signatory states to the 'Declaration on Via Carpathia'. This is reflected in the TEN-T network road maps included as an annex to Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network and repealing Decision No 661/2010/EU. An exception is the section of road No 8 between Białystok and Suwałki, which was not incorporated into the TEN-T network in view of the need to preserve the integrity of the 'Puszcza Knyszyńska' and 'Ostoja Knyszyńska' Natura 2000 sites in the vicinity of the section. Nonetheless, the exclusion of this section from the TEN-T network is not an obstacle to its modernisation. As indicated above, the project to construct a single carriageway bypass of Augustów is currently being implemented. The inclusion of 'Via Carpathia' in the TEN-T network gives Poland the ability to apply for EU funds to co-finance that project.

(closing formula and signature)

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