Tomorrow the government will consider a resolution on the settlement of the question of Germany’s reparations and compensation for Poland; this clearly shows that we are not closing the compensation case, because we never closed it, Minister Lukasz Schreiber told PAP.
The initiative to adopt such a resolution by the government came from the deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, in early April. Inquiring about it, the deputy minister stressed that “it is to confirm in a formal and binding manner that the question of reparations and compensation from Germany to Poland – neither in the time of the Polish People’s Republic nor later – has not been closed in Anyway.” In his view, the government’s resolution on Germany’s reparations would put an end to any elaboration on Poland’s alleged renunciation of claims and state unequivocally that the matter was never the subject of a decision by the Council of Ministers, not even in time of the People’s Republic of Poland.
Government resolution
Mularczyk stressed that the adoption of such a resolution is “clearly related to the disputes that Poland has already waived reparations in the 1950s and that the German side considers the matter closed”.
A resolution of the Council of Ministers, which would settle this issue unequivocally, would be instrumental in effectively raising the issue in the bilateral and multilateral forum.
– then pointed to the deputy minister.
Łukasz Schreiber confirmed that the government will deal with the issue of the resolution on Tuesday.
This is the next step, it clearly shows that we are not closing the case, because we never closed it. Let me remind you that the Sejm of the Republic of Poland already ruled on this issue in 2004. At the time, representatives of the current opposition spoke differently on this issue. So there is such a signal from the government to the country, but also to the international community
noted the minister.
Costs of the German occupation
The total value of the losses estimated in the report on losses suffered by Poland due to German aggression and occupation during the Second World War 1939-1945, presented on September 1 last year, is PLN 6.22 billion, i.e. the equivalent of USD 1 .53 billion at the December 31, 2021 exchange rate
In any case, this value does not reflect the extent of the damage and is only a modest approximation of the costs
said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In the discussion of reparations, the legal force of the declaration of August 23, 1953, made by the government of the People’s Republic of Poland under the leadership of Bolesław Bierut, comes up. It was issued by the authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland under pressure from the USSR, and the change in the approach to reparations was related to the Soviet Union’s new political direction towards the GDR.
However, as some lawyers and historians point out, making such a statement in 1953 was questionable from a formal and legal point of view – such matters then fell within the purview of the Council of State, not the Council of Ministers; the document related only to the GDR, which, however, did not receive the diplomatic note; it is not even certain whether a meeting of the government of the People’s Republic of Poland was held at all on Sunday, August 23, 1953.
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Mon/PAP
Source: wPolityce