BIALOWIEZA, Poland--When Poland sought to ease tensions with the European Union by declaring a halt to logging in the ancient Bialowieza forest, it did not announce how many trees it had already cut down.
In fact, logging quotas to 2021 had already been reached and in one part of the forest an expanded quota, declared illegal by the European Commission, had been more than half fulfilled despite an injunction, official forestry data shows.
State Forests, the state-run body in charge of harvesting timber and protecting woodland, also confirmed that the forest's two remaining administrative units were aiming to increase the quota of wood that they can harvest by 2021. The woodland, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is home to the largest roaming population of European bison and some of the continent's oldest trees, is emblematic of the rift between the EU executive and the nationalist party ruling Poland since 2015.
At the beginning of this year, a reshuffled Law and Justice government in Warsaw said it had complied with an order from the European Court of Justice, first issued in July, to stop logging in Bialowieza, setting a new tone it wants Brussels to match. Environmentalists said the announcement came too late to prevent irreparable damage, albeit to a limited area.
The standoff over the forest is one of several flashpoints between Warsaw and Brussels that include pan-European migration quotas and judicial reform plans. At stake is not only the unique biodiversity of the woodland but also, some lawyers and environmentalists say, the future of European institutions and the rule of law.
The European Court of Justice ordered a halt to logging in July last year while it looked into the Commission's case that the sharp increase in the logging target for the southeastern Bialowieza Forest section broke European environment law. Warsaw refused to comply and four months later, the court threatened to fine Poland $100,000 for each day it felled trees for sale.
It was the first time an EU state had publicly said it would ignore an order of the court, said Laurent Pech, professor of European Law at Middlesex University London, calling it "a direct threat to the very functioning of the EU legal order."
The cessation of logging was "a cosmetic concession, Pech said. "The EU... cannot simply let the Polish government get away with this, as this behaviour if unsanctioned would render the EU legal system totally ineffective."
Poland faces a preliminary opinion on the legality of the increased target at the European Court of Justice on Feb. 20. It could be ordered to drop the plan for increased logging adopted in March 2016 and fined, at a later date, if it does not comply. The consequences of the extra felling already done are not clear.
A government source said that by calling a halt to the logging, Warsaw expected to win some breathing space, both on the forest and on the ruling party's signature policy - a reform of the judiciary that the EU says would put courts under political control and might have to be met with sanctions. "We are ready to give in on some issues, Bialowieza among them, but we are expecting Brussels to stop its push against Warsaw on other issues, such as our much-needed reform of the courts," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A senior EU official, who also declined to be named, told Reuters: "If Poland were looking for a gesture, the forest seems the easiest one for them. It costs them nothing and it could possibly serve as a first step."
