Poland delays compensation for communist-era seizures

Poland is suspending work on legislation aimed at compensating former property-owners who lost assets to communist-era seizures, arguing that tough economic times have forced the delay, the treasury said last Thursday.

“Given the current economic situation, work on this draft legislation cannot be continued,” Poland’s state treasury said in a statement.

“If this legislation were to come into effect in 2012 (...) the public debt would grow by 18 billion zloty (€4.5 billion) and the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP) would grow by some 1.0to 1.1 percentage points,” thestatement said.

Compensation payouts for properties seized during the communist era “could make Poland exceed the public debt ceiling” of 60 per cent of GDP required by the EU’s Maastricht Treaty.

When work began on drafting the legislation in 2008, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised that “all Polish citizens from before World War II, whether they be ethnically Polish, Jewish, Ukrainian or German” would receive restitution for their properties nationalised by the communist regime.

Unlike many of its neighbours, Poland is yet to produce blanket rules on property first seized during the Nazi German occupation, then nationalised by the post-war communist regime and not returned since Poland became a democracy in 1989.

Poland’s property-owners’ association estimates that unreturned property is worth some 65-70 billion zlotys. Jewish claims make up some 17 per cent of all claims, according to the association, which formed a united front with Jewish groups.