The European Commission has indirectly endorsed Poland's 186km border wall with Belarus, which cuts through protected forests.
"It is clear that under EU law we can protect both the environment and public safety," said the home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson on Thursday (5 May).
She said "overriding public safety" exemptions may be used by member states to damage protected environments under the EU's Habitats Directive.
Johansson did not explicitly support the wall, no...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.