Restitution bill moves to Sejm
By : Juliet D. Golden
A final battle over property restitution is set to be waged in the Sejm this week, with the outcome likely to determine whether President Aleksander Kwasniewski signs the controversial bill into law.
The heart of the issue is who will be eligible to receive compensation under the law, which provides mechanisms for compensating Poles and their families for losses due to the illegal expropriation of properties from 1944-1962. Last month the Senate introduced key changes to the bill that significantly broadened the number of property owners eligible for compensation. In contrast to an earlier draft of the law, the Senate voted to allow all former Polish citizens whose property was wrongly confiscated to make claims for compensation.
But those Senate amendments were rejected last week by the Sejm's extraordinary commission on property restitution. In a six to five vote, the commission moved to limit eligibility to property owners and their families who were registered as Polish citizens as of Dec. 31, 1999. This restriction has been criticized inside Poland and abroad for excluding large numbers of Jews and other Poles now living in diaspora who lost property during the communist era.
However, before the bill is sent to the president, Parliament will have the final say in a vote slated for late this week. How politicians vote will likely seal the fate of whether the bill becomes law.
"We'll see what the full house will do," said Witold Danilowicz, executive partner of White & Case, a law firm that represents the Polish government in a property restitution case under way in New York. "If the law eventually gets adopted with the changes wanted by the Senate then I think the president is likely to sign it, but if not then I think he will veto it."
Over the past 10 years, successive governments in Poland have failed to pass comprehensive property restitution legislation. The lack of resolution on the issue has not only made it a fixed centerpiece in domestic politics, it has also earned Poland harsh international criticism. As this latest draft bill nears the end of the legislative road, efforts are under way to influence what stand Kwasniewski should take on the issue.
Arguing that the draft legislation threatens to bust the national coffers, the president's ideological comrades from the political left are urging a veto. Leaders from the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party say that the zl. 47 billion ($11.75 billion) the government estimates is needed to cover all restitution claims permitted under the law would best be used to cover costs related to complete healthcare and social-security reforms.
"A lot of people are concerned how much the attempt to solve this problem from the past will prohibit completion of (reform) programs that are important for the future of the country," Kaczmarek said. According to him, over the next five years zl. 54 billion ($13.5 billion) will be needed to fund social-security reforms alone. "If settling a problem from 50 years back will limit the significance of a project that concerns the future of a generation of Poles, and I have to choose, I will say no to the past."
For similar reasons, popular national figures from the mainstream are also pressuring the president to reject the bill. In an essay published at the end of last month in daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, respected anticommunist activists from the 1980s, Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski, called on the president to veto the bill. "We are opposed to the restitution law because in the name of a certain ideology and in the material interest of a certain group of citizens, the interest of the whole is jeopardized and is threatened with a grave national financial crisis," they wrote.
Even for former property owners, national voices like Kuron and Modzelewski provide compelling arguments for Kwasniewski. "He has serious authorities behind him now," said Miroslaw Szypowski, chairman of the National Coalition of Revindication Organizations (OPOR). "The president has the backing of important people who we don't have behind us."
However, international pressure may sway Kwasniewski toward signing the bill. During a state visit to Israel in May and in meetings last June with former U.S. Secretary of State Madelaine Albright, Kwasniewski emphasized that work on Poland's restitution law was nearing completion and that it would take a significant step toward undoing the wrongs of the past.
"He made some promises during his visits abroad," said Jan Wyrowinski, a Freedom Union (UW) parliamentarian.
However, despite international promises, or perhaps because of them, if the Sejm votes on a more restrictive approach and rejects the Senate's amendments, most observers say a veto is certain.
"He will have a good excuse to veto the law," said Kacper Krasicki, an adviser to the Polish Union of Property Owners (PUWN). "He can say that since the law doesn't include Polish Jews, it's bad, so it should be vetoed."
