Posted on 04/28/2005 11:12:19 AM PDT by lizol
In Need, In Deed By Michal Jeziorski 27 April 2005
The Sejm is reviewing a new property restitution bill. In it, the government proposes compensation to former owners and their heirs to the tune of 15 percent of the value of lost property. Overall, this may mean an amount in the region of zl.11.5 billion.
Poland is the only country in Central and Eastern Europe which has not conducted reprivatization after the fall of communism. After the end of World War II, Poland's communist authorities enacted many laws, decrees and ordinances that nationalized private property-from big agricultural ownership to large industrial enterprises and small properties. Hundreds of thousands of Poles were deprived of their family possessions. They were disowned and most of their houses, mansions and palaces destroyed, and state farms (PGRs) were founded on nationalized land. The property of various associations and churches, religious organizations and municipal property was nationalized.
Property restitution has generated high emotions for years, because of its moral dimension in redressing the harms done in the past. Moreover, this involves finally regulating the legal status of hundreds of thousands of properties in Poland. Their unclear ownership status hampers investment.
Work on the reprivatization bill gained momentum recently due to a threat of giant expenditure on compensation ordered by national and international courts. The Ministry of the Treasury is putting the number at almost zl.55,000 claims with a total value of more than zl.36 billion.
The situation in Warsaw calls for special urgency in property restitution. The city is losing out due to sluggish reprivatization, because former owner claims scare away investors, and unrenovated tenement buildings fall into disrepair. In a central area of the city, on Defilad Square, houses, office buildings and a shopping center are planned. However, the square is full of properties with an uncertain legal status. Until the owners of these lots are determined, any investments are out of the question. The register provides for 26 individuals seeking restitution of the lots in question.
The reprivatization bill provides for compensation in the amount of 15 percent of the value of the property lost. Payments would be made in four monthly installments beginning 2008. Compensation in cash would be financed from a Property Restitution Fund. It is assumed that if the compensation fund ran out of money at any time, the government will be able to support it with loans from the national budget. Payments would be made by a bank serving the fund according to a list of eligible individuals compiled on the basis of a register kept by province governors.
After the law takes effect, former owners and their heirs will have a year to apply. If they have already pressed their claims in court or in an administrative procedure, they will have to decide within a year whether to accept the 15-percent compensation or continue their court battles.
The bill has drawn mixed reviews among former owners. On one hand, it creates an opportunity for at least partial recovery of property or compensation. On the other hand, putting limits on these claims may be an irritating practice. Former owners note that the bill does not provide for a return of nationalized forests and compensation due to nationalization of movable assets such as machinery, equipment and furniture.
Among former owners, a separate category, comprising about 90,000 people, are those who have lost property due to the shift of the state's borders and inclusion of areas beyond the river Bug in the former Soviet Union. Even though Poland's former communist authorities renounced compensation for their private properties left behind the Bug River, European courts point out that no government can dispose of someone else's property, so it cannot renounce compensation on behalf of the citizens. The European Court of Human Rights, in a ruling of June last year, obligated Poland to come up with a general solution to the issue of claims made by owners of properties behind the Bug.
According to data by the Ministry of Infrastructure, on the basis of the current regulations, 5,800 certificates and decisions have been issued so far confirming the right to compensation. The value of confirmed privileges is about zl.2.5 billion.
The property restitution bill does not tackle the problem of nationality or citizenship of those concerned. According to a report commissioned by Israeli authorities, Jewish properties abandoned in Poland on the eve of World War II are now worth more than $30 billion. In the near future the Israeli government will decide whether to adopt an official position on the restitution of Jewish property in Poland.
The amount mentioned in the report applies to properties in Jewish hands in 1939. However, much has changed since then. During the war, the Nazis murdered entire Jewish families, and in keeping with Polish law, if there are no heirs, the assets in question become the property of the State Treasury.
The All-Polish Association of Claims Organizations, which brings together the largest organizations of former owners, estimates that only about 3,000 heirs of former Jewish owners can actually count on compensation for properties left behind in Poland. Assuming that the value of the average Jewish claim is zl.1 million, the amount at stake is in the region of zl.3 million. Notably, no organization has the right to assume ownership of properties on behalf of the deceased owners.
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