Bug River property

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Bug River property lies to the east of the Curzon Line-based part of the modern Polish border

The Bug River property (

Eastern Borderlands from the rest of the current Polish territory. The Bug River land is today distributed between the states of Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine.[1] The claims for compensation for this sequestered land are known as the Bug River claims[1] (Polish: sprawy zabużańskie).[2]

Agreements made between the

Communist Poland had a limited number of provisions concerning issues related to ownership of agricultural land and estates.[1]

In modern Poland, a legislative provision was made on December 12, 2003, to form the basis of state compensation for Polish citizens against the value of their vacated property abroad, by offsetting the value of that vacated property, against an assessed sale price or rent arising from perpetual use. As of February 29, 2003, 82,000 applications for compensation were submitted, with a total estimated value of over 10,500 million PLN.[1]

Due to the unsatisfactory handling of matter it was raised before the

Polish Constitutional Court in 2002. [3]

In 2004 the matter came before the

European Court for Human Rights in the test case: Broniowski v. Poland.[4]
) The Court found

A systemic problem connected with the malfunctioning of domestic legislation and practice caused by the failure to set up an effective mechanism to implement the "right to credit" of Bug River claimants ... with the consequence that not only the applicant in this particular case but also a whole class of individuals had been or were still denied the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions.

The Court noted that the matter was not satisfactorily resolved for some 80,000 claimants.[5]

Further decrees on the implementation of the right to compensation include:

  • Decree of July 8, 2005 - "O realizacji prawa do rekompensaty z tytułu pozostawienia nieruchomości poza obecnymi granicami Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej" (Dz. U. z 2005r. Nr 169 poz. 1418).
  • Decree of September 8, 2006 - "O zmianie ustawy o realizacji prawa do rekompensaty z tytułu pozostawienia nieruchomości poza obecnymi granicami Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej oraz niektórych innych ustaw" (Dz. U. 2006r.Nr 195 poz. 1437).

In February 2014 President Bronisław Komorowski signed a decree to update further the regulations relating to compensation for Bug River landowners. In particular, the decree removed a number of restrictions on the right to compensation.[6] In so doing, it addressed the issues raised before the Constitutional Court and the ECHR on the subject.[6][7]

Due to the recent aspiration of Ukraine to join the European Union, a discussion has arisen in Poland about whether Ukraine would be willing to share the burden of compensation.[citation needed] Reportedly, Lithuania has only reluctantly addressed the claims of Poles for compensation/restitution.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Bug River claims" Archived April 19, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Ministry of Treasury of the Republic of Poland (retrieved April 19, 2015)
  2. ^ Sprawy zabużańskie
  3. ISBN 0199941521, p.862
  4. HUDOC
    database
  5. ISBN 1139499971, p. 333
  6. ^ a b "Prezydent podpisał ustawę ws. rekompensat za mienie zabużańskie"
  7. ISBN 0191029769, Chapter "Poland" by Anna Wyrozumska, p. 479
  8. Kurier Wilenski

Further reading
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