Property restitution bill arrives in Senate; Treasury claims it's affordable

The Senate will begin its debate on the controversial property restitution bill today, with the Treasury Ministry firmly standing by its claim that Poland can afford to return 50% of property seized by the state after World War Two to its previous owners or their descendants. According to a draft of the property restitution bill passed by the Sejm, those people who can prove their claim to property seized after the war would receive 50% compensation in kind or in coupons representing rights to property currently owned by the state or local governments. However, deputies from the opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and Polish Peasant Party (PSL) claim that Treasury calculations regarding the cost of returning the property are grossly inaccurate and that in fact Poland simply cannot afford to return such a share of property to its previous owners. Treasury official Stanislaw Kolanowski yesterday presented the calculations based on which the total value of claims should be no higher than zl.95 billion. Kolanowski said that the state can afford to return 50% of this value, as the value of property set aside for restitution purposes is equal to zl.66.9 billion. Proponents of the bill have a majority of votes in the Senate, but it is possible President Aleksander Kwasniewski would veto the bill if it were passed. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.1) T.J.