![Percentage share of containers in transport performance [tkm] of all transported goods for various types of transport. (Bayer et. al. 2021, CCNR report).](https://savepolesia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/How-to-unlock-the-potential-of-rail-freight-transport-between-Poland-and-Ukraine.jpg)
The study published by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank in July 2023 suggests developing a backbone of European 1435 mm wide railways on key railway lines between Poland and Ukraine. This means that ideas about E40 waterway connecting the Baltic and Black seas have become even more redundant. The study is part of … Read more
Save Polesia Partnership’s stark warning: abandon E40 waterway megaproject or vital wetlands, grasslands, forests, and mires across Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine face catastrophe. A controversial megaproject that aims to connect the Baltic and Black seas via a 2000km-long navigable shipping channel through Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine – known as the E40 inland waterway – would be … Read more
On the 29th of July 2022, Ukraine terminated its bilateral agreement with Belarus on inland navigation. Is this the end of the potentially devastating E40 waterway project? The idea of the E40 waterway was developed by Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian governments. It aims to link the Baltic Sea and Black Sea through a 2,000 km-long … Read more
Experts of the Save Polesia coalition believe that the recently released Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the “Strategy for the Development of Inland Water Transport of Ukraine until 2031 and the action plan for its implementation” contains a number of miscalculations. On September 17, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine published the SEA report of … Read more
A long and discouraging process highlights the near-impossible challenge for civil society to lodge complaints against violations of Ukraine’s environmental laws. Since spring 2020, the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU) – a partner of the Save Polesia coalition – have been battling to challenge the Ukrainian laws that were broken during the first steps … Read more
The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure requests a joint decision among the governments of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, if the E40 waterway project is to be implemented. This needs to be based on sound economic and environmental assessments. The Ukrainian authority stated this in a letter sent to the Save Polesia partner NECU as response to … Read more
The Ukrainian State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management (SAZM) kept their promise and removed the E40 waterway from the updated draft 2030 Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Development Strategy. Hence, the previous section on the “Development of transport infrastructure” is not included anymore – as requested by several organisations, who argued that these plans were unacceptable. The … Read more
The Government of Ukraine have approved the ‘Action Plan for the Implementation of the National Transport Strategy until 2030’, which includes the development of the E40 waterway. The ‘Transport Strategy’ serves as a guidance document for the development of the Ukrainian transport sector. According to the ‘action plan’, the Ministry of Infrastructure as well as … Read more
A section outlining plans for the construction of the E40 waterway through the Ukrainian Chernobyl exclusion zone will be removed from the draft 2030 Exclusion Zone Development Strategy. This revision was announced by a representative of the State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management (SAZM) during an online meeting on February 11 2021. Attendees of the … Read more
The Ukrainian Minister of Environment, Roman Abramovsky, has stated that “the Ministry will insist on Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessments” being carried out before work on the E40 waterway moves forward. Abramovsky made this statement on Facebook following a meeting with a group of environmental activists and NGOs, held at the Ministry of … Read more