In this January, the relevant decisions were taken to organise the Round Table Debate on the issues concerning construction of the Augustów ring road. In February, the debate was completed with conclusions identifying three alternative variants of the route course and a set of the relevant criteria.  

"- Decision was made to manage for tender which was supposed to select contractor of environmental documentation required for the application for decision on the environmental conditions - said Mr. Cezary Grabarczyk, Minister of Infrastructure. "- The invitations to tender were announced three times - the first in March, and the two subsequent in April. However, they were cancelled. The fourth tender - announced in May - resulted in final solution". The Minister of Infrastructure emphasised that his Ministry manages cooperation with the environmental sector, whereas construction of roads is a responsibility which involves entire Cabinet. 

Professor Maciej Nowicki acknowledged very good cooperation between the Ministries as regards construction of roads and motorways in Poland, including the issue of construction of the Augustów ring road. "- in this February - said Professor Nowicki - when the Round Table Debate was about to conclude I said that we are to pass this case to professionals. I believed that it will run very quickly. Unfortunately, the tenders organised by Directorate General of National Roads and Motorways failed and they had to be cancelled. I must say with regret that the former Management of the Directorate also failed. Hence, the relevant personal decisions had to be made which the Minister had taken. Nowadays, new Director General will speed up the course of this matter because a lot of time was lost. In my opinion, we are together in position to give a good signal to the general public and everything will be implemented efficiently." 
  
Mr. Lech Witecki, Acting Director General of National Roads and Motorways said "- We managed to solve something which posed problem since this March and bothered all the sectors which were involved in the construction process of the Augustów ring road. We selected a company which, once all survey and analyses are complete, will identify the optimum road route. The relevant report has to be completed by 28 November 2008. The Directorate General of National Roads and Motorways will due diligence will display diligence in order to conclude everything in due time.  Meanwhile, in order to avoid any prolongation of this process, one of Divisions of Directorate General will perform detailed geological and hydro-geological survey. This survey will be carried out and the relevant study reports, as drawn up by DHV Company, will be further analysed by experts and a multi-option analysis will be also carried out. Thanks to such approach, by the end of this November a complete final document will respond to question what option will be the best." Mr. Lech Witecki said also that the deadline he mentioned (28 November 2008) guarantees that then the course of the road construction process will run undisturbed. 

Minister C. Grabarczyk provided information that any further decisions concerning the ring road will depend upon the results of the works carried out by the experts and the results of the multi-option analysis. "- We are not in position to predict now what will be the route of the ring road. The expert opinion will be decisive to this end, since such are the findings mate at the Round Table" - said Minister of Infrastructure. He also emphasised that the works are under way on this road-section which is common for all the road construction options. He mentioned yet that the cooperation between Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Infrastructure and Ministry of Regional Development resulted in working out of the methods enabling implementation of only these investments which have been endangered by erroneous decisions made in the past. He also stated that the areas covered by compensations will be expanded, where necessary. 

The issue of protests to be possibly launched by environmental NGOs was also discussed during the meeting.  

- "We wish to show to NGOs that we are for the protection of the environment" - said Minister C. Grabarczyk. "- The investments have to be implemented in such manner that any piece of the national property is under protection, and the environment is just such a property. Then approach to investments has entirely changed and that is the reason why we do collaborate with other Ministries in this field.  We were jointly with Minister of the Environment involved in work on the draft proposal of the Environmental Protection Law, and additionally, the Ministry yet provided comments on so called Special Road Act prepared by Ministry of Infrastructure (which was passed in the last week). "- And we will also succeed in joint cooperation with NGOs" - emphasised Minister C. Grabarczyk. 

"- We would like rapidly lead to reaching of the utmost solution on the Natura 2000 sites in Poland - said Professor M. Nowicki when making final remarks of the meeting. "- Jointly with non-governmental organisations we are about to complete the work on preparation of the list of yet disputable (15) bird areas. We would like to finalise this matter on the turn of June and July. The European Commission assumed favourable position vis á vis us. We are intended to designate the habitat areas by the end of this year while working on a single list, since there is no more shadow lit but one common list of the Natura sites in Poland. That is of fundamental importance for road investments since the officials who trace the roads must know the number of these areas, their boundaries, and the method of conduct thereon" - said Minister M. Nowicki. 
   

Mr. Cezary Grabarczyk, Minister of Infrastructure	Mr. Lech Witecki, Acting Director General of National Roads and Motorways
From the left: Mr. Lech Witecki, Mr. Maciej Nowicki, and Mr. Cezary Grabarczyk	Professor Maciej Nowicki, Minister of the Environment