Poland tackled over unpaid road builders

Six European Union states have asked Poland to explain why it is not paying billions of euro that foreign construction firms say they are owed for work carried out under an EU-backed road-building programme.

Poland’s state roads agency says it is the contractors that are at fault, but the dispute risks harming Warsaw’s reputation in Brussels, which is pumping huge sums of development cash into Polish roads and railways.

Reuters has obtained a copy of a letter about the row, signed by the ambassadors of Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Portugal. It was addressed to Polish deputy prime Minister and economy minister Janusz Piechocinski.