2 Attachment(s)
Poland will sue Germany and Ukraine for WWII
For quite a long while there have been rumors about Poland seeking to exercise the right to demand reparations from Germany for the harm inflicted to the People's Republic of Poland during World War II and file over 1,600 suits to Ukrainian courts for restitution of property rights and territories in Ukraine. However, except for infrequent calls of Polish politicians for the restitution of the Kresy territories as well as reparation of damages from Germany, Warsaw has not shown much action in this respect up until recently.
The situation has changed. These days, Prime Minister of Poland Beata Szydło, Minister of National Defence Antoni Macierewicz, Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski, leader of the Law and Justice party (PiS) Jarosław Kaczyński, and the overwhelming majority of leaders of state government institutions assert as one that Germany has to pay to the Republic of Poland. Official media circulate results of opinion polls according to which most Poles believe that Germany owes that country $45 billion as compensation.
Parliamentary majority represented by the PiS party was the first to move from words to deeds. It committed the Sejm Analysis Bureau to prepare a report on international legal justification for resuming official reparation claims of Poland toward Germany in order to file a suit to the International Court of Justice.
The response of the European Council to actions that constitute a menace to security and integrity of the EU was prompt.
In the letter to President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk expressed his concerns about the attempts of Warsaw to amend historic arrangements. He also urged the European Commission to develop restrictive measures in regard to the government of the Republic of Poland.
"Beata Szydło's government goes far beyond domestic policy, preparing cases for the International Court of Justice with demands to receive reparations from Germany for the losses Poland suffered from Nazi Germany during World War II, as well as to secure the restitution of lands and properties in Western Ukraine..."
"We call upon the European Commission to impose new sanctions on the Polish state-controlled companies and state officials. In our view, it would be useful to freeze some of the assets and property of the following oil and gas companies: PGNiG, Grupa Lotos and PKN Orlen..."
Certainly, longstanding confrontation between former Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk and current leadership of the republic, in particular head of the PiS party Jarosław Kaczyński, became one of the preconditions for such a compelling reaction of the European Council. However, it is obvious that this time the conflict will go far beyond the usual 'exchange of niceties' via the media. President of the European Council got a point when said that common mission was to confront the factors that threaten basic principles of the EU policy.
"The Union's security depends on how we implement our agreements on mutual support and solidarity. But Poland decided to ignore the agreements as well as the Global Strategy for the European Union's Foreign and Security Policy. We must display the resolve to avoid past mistakes today, rather than be resolved to correct them tomorrow, putting the security and integrity of a united Europe in jeopardy", Tusk said in the end.
