VANESSA GERA
Thu, August 12, 2021
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland is looking at a more difficult relationship with two allies, the United States and Israel, after lawmakers passed separate bills — one dealing with foreign ownership of media and the other affecting the property rights of the families of Holocaust survivors — which the Polish government had been warned to drop.
The European Union also slammed the media bill on Thursday as undermining media freedom, adding to pre-existing strains between Warsaw and Brussels from the EU's perception of democratic backsliding in member nation Poland.
The bills passed the lower house of the Polish parliament on Wednesday, and still require Senate approval and the signature of the president, who supports the right-wing party that has governed the country since 2015.
The two proposals threaten to further isolate Poland, whose geographic position in Central Europe has often left it at the mercy of stronger neighbors, and whose membership in EU and NATO and relationship with the U.S. are considered key guarantees of the country's future security.
One of the bills that passed would push Discovery Inc., the U.S. owner of Poland’s largest private television network, to sell its large and popular Polish network, TVN. The other would prevent former property owners, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants, from regaining property expropriated by the country’s communist regime.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement late Wednesday about what he called the “troubling legislation,” saying that the NATO alliance to which Poland belongs “is based on mutual commitments to shared democratic values and prosperity.”
“These pieces of legislation run counter to the principles and values for which modern, democratic nations stand,” Blinken said.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki responded Thursday by suggesting the U.S. officials do not understand the Polish bills and should analyze them more closely.
On the media bill, Morawiecki said: “We do not have any intentions regarding a specific television channel. It is just about tightening the regulations so that there is no situation in which companies from outside the European Union would freely buy media in Poland.”
In anticipation of a parliamentary vote, the bill triggered nationwide protests Tuesday. Among the participants expressing fear that their right to independent information was under attack were older Poles who remember the censorship of the communist era.
By contrast, the law which would affect the former property owners — both Jewish and non-Jewish — got almost no media coverage in Poland. But it sparked a fast and angry response from Israel, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid saying it “damages both the memory of the Holocaust and the rights of its victims.”
The EU Commission, which polices EU law, said it will follow the media issue very closely while the EU's top watchdog for democratic values, Vera Jourova, tweeted that the foreign ownership bill sends a negative signal.
“Media pluralism and diversity of opinions are what strong democracies welcome, not fight against," Jourova wrote. “We need a #MediaFreedomAct in the whole EU to uphold media freedom and support the rule of law.”
European Parliament President David Sassoli also weighed in on the media vote, calling it “very worrying.”
“If the law comes into force, it will seriously threaten independent television in the country. There can be no freedom without a free media," he said.
The development looked to many like a crucial move in a step-by-step dismantling of the democratic standards that Poland embraced when it threw off communism in 1989.
Hungary had already set the trail for such an illiberal political direction, and the EU has shown little ability so far to do much to ensure adherence to its values either there or in Poland, both previously models of democratic transformation.
After communism ended more than three decades ago, many foreign investors entered Poland's media market. Poland's ruling party, led by the country's de facto leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has long seen this as a problem and sought to “repolonize” the media. The party argues that keeping Polish entities in control of the media is a matter of national security and that such regulations are in line with Western European standards.
However, the party's critics see the efforts to nationalize media as a pretext for silencing independent voices. The effort is well on its way. Soon after winning power in 2015, Law and Justice transformed tax-funded public media into a party mouthpiece. Last year the state oil company bought a large private media group that owned newspapers, magazines and internet portals, and has since moved to changing the editors.
Some fear the internet could be next after Kaczynski said in July that “the other side” has the advantage there and “we will still have to strive to change this situation.”
On Thursday, TVP Info, the public broadcaster's all-news station, declared that the parliament had defended “Polish sovereignty” with its media bill.
Independent journalists have a different view. A letter in defense of TVN had gathered the signatures of over 1,000 Polish journalists on Thursday.
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Raf Casert in Brussels contributed.
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Poland Media LawPeople protest outside the Polish Parliament after lawmakers passed a bill seen as harmful to media freedom in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Poland's parliament voted Wednesday in favor of a bill that would force Discovery Inc., the U.S. owner of Poland's largest private television network, to sell its Polish holdings and is widely viewed as an attack on media independence in Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)More
Polish PM rejects U.S. criticism of media and property restitution bills
First day of the European Union summit in Brussels
Thu, August 12, 2021
WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland's prime minister on Thursday rejected criticism of bills on media ownership and property restitution passed by parliament, after the United States, one of Warsaw's most important allies, denounced the legislation.
In a tumultuous sitting of parliament on Wednesday, Polish lawmakers passed a bill that would strengthen a ban on firms from outside the European Economic Area controlling Polish broadcasters.
The opposition says the bill aims to gag the news channel TVN24, which is owned by U.S.-based media group Discovery Inc and is critical of Poland's right-wing nationalist government.
Late on Thursday Discovery said it has notified the Polish government that it will take legal action under the bilateral investment treaty between the United States and Poland, branding Poland's failure to renew the TVN24 broadcasting license and yesterday's vote as "discriminatory".
"The legislation is the latest assault on independent media and freedom of the press, and takes direct aim at Discovery’s TVN," the company said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was "deeply troubled" by the passage of the bill, which he said targeted the most-watched independent news station in Poland and one of the largest U.S. investments in the country.
Vera Jourova, European Commission Vice President for Values and Transparency, said the bill sent a "negative signal".
"We need a #MediaFreedomAct in the whole EU to uphold media freedom and support the rule of law," she tweeted.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denied the bill was aimed at TVN.
"We do not have any intentions regarding a specific TV channel. It is just about tightening the regulations, so that there is no situation in which companies from outside the European Union would buy media in Poland," he told a news conference.
The bills must clear both houses of parliament and be signed by President Andrzej Duda to become law. Duda is close to the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and is not expected to veto the legislation.
PROPERTY RESTITUTION
Morawiecki later on Thursday also defended parliament's decision not to exempt NATO member countries from the ban.
"A military alliance is one thing, a common legislation and a common economic area is another," he said.
The United States is a founding member of the North Atlantic alliance.
Blinken had also called on Poland not to proceed with legislation that is expected to make it harder for Jews to recover property seized by Nazi German occupiers during the Holocaust and kept by postwar Communist rulers.
Morawiecki said the law would implement a 2015 ruling by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal that a deadline must be set after which faulty administrative decisions can no longer be challenged.
"This has nothing to do with the fears expressed by our American friends about us," he said.
A European Commission spokesperson said the EU executive would continue following all issues in Poland, including the restitution bill, and would "take any action necessary within the powers conferred to it by the treaties".
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw; Additional reporting Sabine Siebold in Berlin, Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru and Alicja Ptak in Warsaw; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Gareth Jones and Chizu Nomiyama)
First day of the European Union summit in Brussels
Thu, August 12, 2021
WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland's prime minister on Thursday rejected criticism of bills on media ownership and property restitution passed by parliament, after the United States, one of Warsaw's most important allies, denounced the legislation.
In a tumultuous sitting of parliament on Wednesday, Polish lawmakers passed a bill that would strengthen a ban on firms from outside the European Economic Area controlling Polish broadcasters.
The opposition says the bill aims to gag the news channel TVN24, which is owned by U.S.-based media group Discovery Inc and is critical of Poland's right-wing nationalist government.
Late on Thursday Discovery said it has notified the Polish government that it will take legal action under the bilateral investment treaty between the United States and Poland, branding Poland's failure to renew the TVN24 broadcasting license and yesterday's vote as "discriminatory".
"The legislation is the latest assault on independent media and freedom of the press, and takes direct aim at Discovery’s TVN," the company said in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was "deeply troubled" by the passage of the bill, which he said targeted the most-watched independent news station in Poland and one of the largest U.S. investments in the country.
Vera Jourova, European Commission Vice President for Values and Transparency, said the bill sent a "negative signal".
"We need a #MediaFreedomAct in the whole EU to uphold media freedom and support the rule of law," she tweeted.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denied the bill was aimed at TVN.
"We do not have any intentions regarding a specific TV channel. It is just about tightening the regulations, so that there is no situation in which companies from outside the European Union would buy media in Poland," he told a news conference.
The bills must clear both houses of parliament and be signed by President Andrzej Duda to become law. Duda is close to the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and is not expected to veto the legislation.
PROPERTY RESTITUTION
Morawiecki later on Thursday also defended parliament's decision not to exempt NATO member countries from the ban.
"A military alliance is one thing, a common legislation and a common economic area is another," he said.
The United States is a founding member of the North Atlantic alliance.
Blinken had also called on Poland not to proceed with legislation that is expected to make it harder for Jews to recover property seized by Nazi German occupiers during the Holocaust and kept by postwar Communist rulers.
Morawiecki said the law would implement a 2015 ruling by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal that a deadline must be set after which faulty administrative decisions can no longer be challenged.
"This has nothing to do with the fears expressed by our American friends about us," he said.
A European Commission spokesperson said the EU executive would continue following all issues in Poland, including the restitution bill, and would "take any action necessary within the powers conferred to it by the treaties".
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz in Warsaw; Additional reporting Sabine Siebold in Berlin, Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru and Alicja Ptak in Warsaw; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Gareth Jones and Chizu Nomiyama)
Polish lawmakers pass bill seen as limiting media freedom
By VANESSA GERA
1 of 10
People demonstrate in defense of media freedom in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. Poland’s ruling right-wing party has lost its parliamentary majority after a coalition partner announced it was leaving the government, Wednesday Aug. 11, 2021, amid a rift over a bill which the junior partner party views as an attack on media freedom.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s parliament voted Wednesday in favor of a bill that would force Discovery Inc., the U.S. owner of Poland’s largest private television network, to sell its Polish holdings and is widely viewed as an attack on media independence in Poland.
The draft legislation would prevent non-European owners from having controlling stakes in Polish media companies. In practice, it only affects TVN, which includes TVN24, an all-news station that is critical of the nationalist right-wing government and has exposed wrongdoing by Polish authorities.
Lawmakers voted 228-216 to pass the legislation, with 10 abstentions.
The bill must still go to the Senate, where the opposition has a slim majority. The upper house can suggest changes and delay the bill’s passage, but the lower house can ultimately pass it as it wishes. It would then go to President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the right-wing government.
Discovery said it was “extremely concerned” and appealed to the Senate and Duda to oppose the project. “Poland’s future as a democratic country in the international arena and its credibility in the eyes of investors depend on this,” it said.
The vote in parliament followed two days of political upheaval that saw the prime minister on Tuesday fire a deputy prime minister who opposed the media bill.
The ruling party appeared earlier Wednesday not to have the votes, but found them after all.
There was also tension on the street after the vote, with protesters gathering in front of parliament. Some clashed with police and were detained.
The media bill is viewed as a crucial test for the survival of independent news outlets in the former communist nation, coming six years into the rule of a populist government that has chipped away at media and judicial independence.
The ruling party has long sought to nationalize media in foreign hands, arguing it is necessary for national security. Ejecting TVN’s American owner from Poland’s media market would be a huge victory for the government, coming after the state oil company last year bought a large private media group.
Its political opponents, however, believe that TVN’s independence is tantamount to saving media freedom and see the survival of Poland’s democracy as being on the line.
TVN’s all-news station TVN24 is a key source of news for many Poles but it is also a thorn in the government’s side. It is often critical and exposes wrongdoing by officials. The government’s supporters consider it biased and unfairly critical.
Government critics have long feared that Poland was following a path set by Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has gained near-total control over the media as private outlets have either folded or come under the control of the leader’s allies.
TVN represents the largest ever U.S. investment in Poland. The company was bought for $2 billion by another U.S. company, Scripps Networks Interactive, which was later acquired by Discovery.
The draft bill was adding to strain between Poland and the United States.
On Wednesday, the parliament also passed another bill opposed by the U.S. and Israel — a law that would prevent former Polish property owners, among them Holocaust survivors and their heirs, from regaining property expropriated by the country’s communist regime.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday that the United States was “deeply troubled” by the legislation targeting TVM.
“Poland has worked for decades to foster a vibrant and free media,” Blinken said. “This draft legislation would significantly weaken the media environment the Polish people have worked so long to build.”
___
AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
By VANESSA GERA
1 of 10
People demonstrate in defense of media freedom in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. Poland’s ruling right-wing party has lost its parliamentary majority after a coalition partner announced it was leaving the government, Wednesday Aug. 11, 2021, amid a rift over a bill which the junior partner party views as an attack on media freedom.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s parliament voted Wednesday in favor of a bill that would force Discovery Inc., the U.S. owner of Poland’s largest private television network, to sell its Polish holdings and is widely viewed as an attack on media independence in Poland.
The draft legislation would prevent non-European owners from having controlling stakes in Polish media companies. In practice, it only affects TVN, which includes TVN24, an all-news station that is critical of the nationalist right-wing government and has exposed wrongdoing by Polish authorities.
Lawmakers voted 228-216 to pass the legislation, with 10 abstentions.
The bill must still go to the Senate, where the opposition has a slim majority. The upper house can suggest changes and delay the bill’s passage, but the lower house can ultimately pass it as it wishes. It would then go to President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the right-wing government.
Discovery said it was “extremely concerned” and appealed to the Senate and Duda to oppose the project. “Poland’s future as a democratic country in the international arena and its credibility in the eyes of investors depend on this,” it said.
The vote in parliament followed two days of political upheaval that saw the prime minister on Tuesday fire a deputy prime minister who opposed the media bill.
The ruling party appeared earlier Wednesday not to have the votes, but found them after all.
There was also tension on the street after the vote, with protesters gathering in front of parliament. Some clashed with police and were detained.
The media bill is viewed as a crucial test for the survival of independent news outlets in the former communist nation, coming six years into the rule of a populist government that has chipped away at media and judicial independence.
The ruling party has long sought to nationalize media in foreign hands, arguing it is necessary for national security. Ejecting TVN’s American owner from Poland’s media market would be a huge victory for the government, coming after the state oil company last year bought a large private media group.
Its political opponents, however, believe that TVN’s independence is tantamount to saving media freedom and see the survival of Poland’s democracy as being on the line.
TVN’s all-news station TVN24 is a key source of news for many Poles but it is also a thorn in the government’s side. It is often critical and exposes wrongdoing by officials. The government’s supporters consider it biased and unfairly critical.
Government critics have long feared that Poland was following a path set by Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has gained near-total control over the media as private outlets have either folded or come under the control of the leader’s allies.
TVN represents the largest ever U.S. investment in Poland. The company was bought for $2 billion by another U.S. company, Scripps Networks Interactive, which was later acquired by Discovery.
The draft bill was adding to strain between Poland and the United States.
On Wednesday, the parliament also passed another bill opposed by the U.S. and Israel — a law that would prevent former Polish property owners, among them Holocaust survivors and their heirs, from regaining property expropriated by the country’s communist regime.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday that the United States was “deeply troubled” by the legislation targeting TVM.
“Poland has worked for decades to foster a vibrant and free media,” Blinken said. “This draft legislation would significantly weaken the media environment the Polish people have worked so long to build.”
___
AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
Poles protest bill that would silence US-owned TV network
By VANESSA GERA
By VANESSA GERA
August 10, 2021
1 of 13
1 of 13
People demonstrate in defense of media freedom in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. Poles demonstrated nationwide Tuesday against a bill widely viewed as a effort by the country's nationalist ruling party to silence an independent, U.S.-owned television broadcaster that is critical of the government.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poles demonstrated nationwide Tuesday against a bill widely viewed as a effort by the country’s nationalist ruling party to silence an independent, U.S.-owned television broadcaster that is critical of the government.
Technically, the bill would prevent non-European owners from having controlling stakes in Polish media companies. In practice, it would push American company Discovery Inc. to sell its controlling stake in TVN, a network with many channels that operates the all-news station TVN24 and has a flagship evening news program watched daily by millions.
At stake in the bill’s passage is Poland’s reputation for media freedom and as a place for foreign companies to do business. The proposal is already straining relations with the United States, a key ally.
Poland’s ruling party, Law and Justice, has long sought to nationalize the media, claiming it is for national security reasons. It says the law would bring Poland into line with other European countries, including France and Germany, which limit foreign ownership in the media. It cites the risk of media being controlled by hostile powers like Russia and China.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tuesday the law isn’t directed against anyone but seeks to protect Polish society, alleging that foreign entities are trying to influence Poland’s debate on COVID-19 vaccinations.
“It is through the media that other countries influence our social life,” he said at a news conference.
Large crowds chanted “Free media!” in dozens of cities and towns in support of TVN. In front of parliament in the capital of Warsaw, Donald Tusk, a former top European Union official who is now the leader of the opposition party Civic Platform, described free media as a pillar of democracy worth fighting for and accused the government of trying to “return to communist patterns.”
On Wednesday parliament is set to debate and vote on the bill.
The bill was introduced last month and appears to have a high chance of passing. Jaroslaw Gowin, who heads a small party in Poland’s right-wing coalition government, opposed the bill and was dismissed from the government just as the protests started Tuesday.
Reporters Without Borders urged Polish lawmakers to reject the legislation, accusing the ruling party of targeting the independent broadcaster “to enable government allies to acquire TVN.”
Poland fell this year to 64th of 180 countries in the group’s World Press Freedom Index, its lowest-ever ranking. It was in 18th place in 2015, the year Law and Justice took power.
TVN24 is the leading source of independent broadcast news for many Poles. Discovery had already felt endangered as the National Broadcasting Council, a Polish state body, has so far failed to renew the broadcast license for TVN24, which expires in September.
The bill’s fate is being watched as a key test of media freedom and democracy.
Critics fear it would be a large step bringing Poland closer to the situation in Hungary, where authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gained near-total control over the media as private outlets have either folded or come under the control of his allies.
Poland’s ruling party has already turned tax-funded public TV into a party mouthpiece. Lately it has been seeking greater control over private media, with the state oil company buying a large private media group last year.
TVN represents the largest-ever U.S. investment in Poland. The company was bought for $2 billion by another U.S. company, Scripps Networks Interactive, which was later acquired by Discovery.
Last week a bipartisan Congressional group expressed its increasing concern “about the ongoing attacks on the free press, independent judiciary and the rule of law in Poland.”
Former Polish foreign and defense ministers wrote an open letter to the Polish government last week expressing fears the proposed legislation could weaken ties with the U.S., which has troops stationed in Poland and sells Poland military equipment.
Jean-Briac Perrette, president and CEO of Discovery International, called the planned vote on the bill concerning, warning that “an unpredictable regulatory framework should be very concerning for all potential investors in the market.”
The development comes as Discovery is set to merge next year into a mega-company with AT&T’s WarnerMedia.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poles demonstrated nationwide Tuesday against a bill widely viewed as a effort by the country’s nationalist ruling party to silence an independent, U.S.-owned television broadcaster that is critical of the government.
Technically, the bill would prevent non-European owners from having controlling stakes in Polish media companies. In practice, it would push American company Discovery Inc. to sell its controlling stake in TVN, a network with many channels that operates the all-news station TVN24 and has a flagship evening news program watched daily by millions.
At stake in the bill’s passage is Poland’s reputation for media freedom and as a place for foreign companies to do business. The proposal is already straining relations with the United States, a key ally.
Poland’s ruling party, Law and Justice, has long sought to nationalize the media, claiming it is for national security reasons. It says the law would bring Poland into line with other European countries, including France and Germany, which limit foreign ownership in the media. It cites the risk of media being controlled by hostile powers like Russia and China.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Tuesday the law isn’t directed against anyone but seeks to protect Polish society, alleging that foreign entities are trying to influence Poland’s debate on COVID-19 vaccinations.
“It is through the media that other countries influence our social life,” he said at a news conference.
Large crowds chanted “Free media!” in dozens of cities and towns in support of TVN. In front of parliament in the capital of Warsaw, Donald Tusk, a former top European Union official who is now the leader of the opposition party Civic Platform, described free media as a pillar of democracy worth fighting for and accused the government of trying to “return to communist patterns.”
On Wednesday parliament is set to debate and vote on the bill.
The bill was introduced last month and appears to have a high chance of passing. Jaroslaw Gowin, who heads a small party in Poland’s right-wing coalition government, opposed the bill and was dismissed from the government just as the protests started Tuesday.
Reporters Without Borders urged Polish lawmakers to reject the legislation, accusing the ruling party of targeting the independent broadcaster “to enable government allies to acquire TVN.”
Poland fell this year to 64th of 180 countries in the group’s World Press Freedom Index, its lowest-ever ranking. It was in 18th place in 2015, the year Law and Justice took power.
TVN24 is the leading source of independent broadcast news for many Poles. Discovery had already felt endangered as the National Broadcasting Council, a Polish state body, has so far failed to renew the broadcast license for TVN24, which expires in September.
The bill’s fate is being watched as a key test of media freedom and democracy.
Critics fear it would be a large step bringing Poland closer to the situation in Hungary, where authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gained near-total control over the media as private outlets have either folded or come under the control of his allies.
Poland’s ruling party has already turned tax-funded public TV into a party mouthpiece. Lately it has been seeking greater control over private media, with the state oil company buying a large private media group last year.
TVN represents the largest-ever U.S. investment in Poland. The company was bought for $2 billion by another U.S. company, Scripps Networks Interactive, which was later acquired by Discovery.
Last week a bipartisan Congressional group expressed its increasing concern “about the ongoing attacks on the free press, independent judiciary and the rule of law in Poland.”
Former Polish foreign and defense ministers wrote an open letter to the Polish government last week expressing fears the proposed legislation could weaken ties with the U.S., which has troops stationed in Poland and sells Poland military equipment.
Jean-Briac Perrette, president and CEO of Discovery International, called the planned vote on the bill concerning, warning that “an unpredictable regulatory framework should be very concerning for all potential investors in the market.”
The development comes as Discovery is set to merge next year into a mega-company with AT&T’s WarnerMedia.
Poland passes law that would cut off property claims
By VANESSA GERA
By VANESSA GERA
August 11, 2021
FILE - In this Dec. 5, 2016, file photo is Prozna Street, in the heart of what was Warsaw's Jewish quarter before World War II, in Warsaw, Poland. Poland's parliament passed a law on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, that would prevent former Polish property owners, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants, from regaining property expropriated by the country's communist regime.
FILE - In this Dec. 5, 2016, file photo is Prozna Street, in the heart of what was Warsaw's Jewish quarter before World War II, in Warsaw, Poland. Poland's parliament passed a law on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, that would prevent former Polish property owners, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants, from regaining property expropriated by the country's communist regime.
(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s parliament passed a law on Wednesday that would prevent former Polish property owners, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants, from regaining property expropriated by the country’s communist regime.
Israel condemned the legislation, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid saying it “damages both the memory of the Holocaust and the rights of its victims.”
Meanwhile, Gideon Taylor, the chair of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, or WJRO, an advocate for property restitution, said the group was “outraged,” and and called the bill “equally unfair for both Jews and non-Jews.”
The adopted amendment to Poland’s administrative law would prevent property ownership and other administrative decisions from being declared void after 30 years. It affects Jewish and non-Jewish owners who had properties seized in the communist era.
In the case of the former Jewish owners, at stake in many cases are the homes or business of families who were wiped out in the Holocaust and whose properties were later seized by Poland’s communist-era authorities.
When communism fell in 1989, it opened up the possibility for former owners to try to regain lost properties. Some cases have made their way through the courts, but Poland has never passed a comprehensive law that would regulate restituting or compensating seized properties.
Poland says the new legislation is a response to fraud and irregularities that have emerged in the restitution process, leading to evictions or giving real estate to property dealers in a process called “wild re-privatization.”
Michael Bazyler, an expert in international law and restitution at Chapman University School of Law in California, argues that it is the wrong tool to fight the problem, and that cutting off claims of former owners forever amounts to “perpetuating injustice by the communists.”
“The way you stop wild re-privatization and corruption is to go against corruption,” he told The Associated Press. “You don’t do it by taking the claims of legitimate heirs.”
Taylor, from the WJRO, called on President Andrzej Duda to veto the bill and urged the Polish government to work with it to “once and for all settle the issue of private property restitution.”
He argued that more than 30 years after the fall of communism, Poland was still benefitting from wrongfully acquired property.
“Property restitution is about more than money – for many Holocaust survivors and their families, a home is the last remaining physical connection to the lives they once led, to the countries where they were born, and to the towns where they grew up, before their lives were shattered,” Taylor said.
In Israel, Speaker of the Knesset Mickey Levy decided not to re-establish the Israeli-Polish parliamentary friendship group.
“The anti-restitution law restricting property claims by victims of the Holocaust is a daylight robbery that desecrates the memory of the Holocaust,” he said. “Poland’s decision to pass this immoral law harms the friendship and bilateral relations between Israel and Poland.”
The United States had been pressuring Poland in hopes of stopping the legislation.
“We are deeply concerned that Poland’s parliament passed legislation today severely restricting the process for Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as other Jewish and non-Jewish property owners, to obtain restitution for property wrongfully confiscated during Poland’s communist era,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. He urged Duda to not sign the bill into law or to refer it to Poland’s constitutional tribunal.
___
Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, Israel, and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s parliament passed a law on Wednesday that would prevent former Polish property owners, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants, from regaining property expropriated by the country’s communist regime.
Israel condemned the legislation, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid saying it “damages both the memory of the Holocaust and the rights of its victims.”
Meanwhile, Gideon Taylor, the chair of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, or WJRO, an advocate for property restitution, said the group was “outraged,” and and called the bill “equally unfair for both Jews and non-Jews.”
The adopted amendment to Poland’s administrative law would prevent property ownership and other administrative decisions from being declared void after 30 years. It affects Jewish and non-Jewish owners who had properties seized in the communist era.
In the case of the former Jewish owners, at stake in many cases are the homes or business of families who were wiped out in the Holocaust and whose properties were later seized by Poland’s communist-era authorities.
When communism fell in 1989, it opened up the possibility for former owners to try to regain lost properties. Some cases have made their way through the courts, but Poland has never passed a comprehensive law that would regulate restituting or compensating seized properties.
Poland says the new legislation is a response to fraud and irregularities that have emerged in the restitution process, leading to evictions or giving real estate to property dealers in a process called “wild re-privatization.”
Michael Bazyler, an expert in international law and restitution at Chapman University School of Law in California, argues that it is the wrong tool to fight the problem, and that cutting off claims of former owners forever amounts to “perpetuating injustice by the communists.”
“The way you stop wild re-privatization and corruption is to go against corruption,” he told The Associated Press. “You don’t do it by taking the claims of legitimate heirs.”
Taylor, from the WJRO, called on President Andrzej Duda to veto the bill and urged the Polish government to work with it to “once and for all settle the issue of private property restitution.”
He argued that more than 30 years after the fall of communism, Poland was still benefitting from wrongfully acquired property.
“Property restitution is about more than money – for many Holocaust survivors and their families, a home is the last remaining physical connection to the lives they once led, to the countries where they were born, and to the towns where they grew up, before their lives were shattered,” Taylor said.
In Israel, Speaker of the Knesset Mickey Levy decided not to re-establish the Israeli-Polish parliamentary friendship group.
“The anti-restitution law restricting property claims by victims of the Holocaust is a daylight robbery that desecrates the memory of the Holocaust,” he said. “Poland’s decision to pass this immoral law harms the friendship and bilateral relations between Israel and Poland.”
The United States had been pressuring Poland in hopes of stopping the legislation.
“We are deeply concerned that Poland’s parliament passed legislation today severely restricting the process for Holocaust survivors and their families, as well as other Jewish and non-Jewish property owners, to obtain restitution for property wrongfully confiscated during Poland’s communist era,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. He urged Duda to not sign the bill into law or to refer it to Poland’s constitutional tribunal.
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Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, Israel, and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
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