Poland guilty of illegal logging

LUXEMBOURG: Poland violated environmental laws with its massive logging of trees in one of Europe’s last pristine forests, the EU’S top court has ruled.

The ruling by the European Court of Justice said that, in increasing logging in the Bialowieza Forest in 2016, Poland failed to meets obligations to protect natural sites of special importance.

Poland’s environment minister at the time, Jan Szyszko, said it was necessary to fight bark beetle infestation.

He has since been replaced and the logging has stopped. The new minister, Henryk Kowalczyk, has said Warsaw will respect the ruling.