“No” draconian penalties for tablets

The Director of the local Government Administration Of Vilnius Lucyna Kotłowska will not have to pay for every 1 000 Lt fine for bilingual signs with street names-in Polish and Lithuanian. The Vilnius Regional Court quashed the request for such a penalty is a debt collector for the Director, who implements and injunctive not Polish removal of tiles. A judgment shall be entitled to a 7-day deadline for appeal to a higher court.

1000 Lt (around 290 euros, almost 1,200 zl)-the maximum punishment from every day of delay in implementing the decision of the Court. The representative of the Republic of Lithuania Government demanded supervising the work of local government area of Vilnius and enforcement officer Court ruling, ordering the removal of Polish plates. The directors of administration “Polish” district authorities-Vilnius and Šalčininkai- went to court for years about the behavior of plates, but in 2010, the Regional Administrative Court of Vilnius found them unlawful and peremptorily ordered to remove them.

Directorate of Administration formally Vilnius buckled down under the order and removed the part of the official placards, but has announced that there is no law and does not intend to remove the tablets from the houses. “This is not a property of the local government administration, only land and private property,” repeatedly pointed out in court, the directors of the local administration of Vilnius and Šalčininkai. District officers have advised the residents to remove order of service plates, but he refused.

After a year of Vilnius Civic Court No. 1 punished Lucyna Kotłowską fined 500 Lt for non-execution of judgments. The fine has not been paid because the Director of the Vilnius region admnistracji acknowledged that she did everything in her power to make an order.

The local Government Administration Of Vilnius has not yet received the written reasons for the decision of the Court-message of rejection of the proposal was informed by telephone. Defending the rights of Poles in Lithuania the European Foundation for human rights (EFHR) points out that so far, it is unclear how Lucyna Kotłowska has to do the judicial decision take down the plates, whereas bilingual inscriptions are found on private houses. Representative EFHR Ewelina Baliko points out that “both the administrative decision, and the decision of the Court should apply to each individual owner in a  specific and individual character.”

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/quotniequot-drakonskim-karom-za-tabliczki

Tłumaczenie by Katarzyna Dąbrowska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Katarzyna Dąbrowska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.