A plan to end the process of lands restoration by electoral action of poles in lithuania

Yesterday, October 4^th, Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (AWPL) presented project of amendment to restitution bill, which is supposed to end the process of lands restoration lasting over 20 years.

“Most of land owners are still waiting for restoration of properties”, said leader of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, MEP Waldemar Tomaszewski, when he was presenting the project of amendment. “Process of lands restoration in Vilnius has been completed only in 30 percent”, noticed Tomaszewski. He added, that also in other big cities, like Kowno, there was a serious problem with lands restoration, where only about 50 percent of previous owners had regained their lands.

Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania has proposed that within the restitution of rights the land, which is leased from the  state by different institutions and companies, should be passed to the previous owners.

– This land needs to be returned to its previous owners, who will make the decisions on their own if they want to lease those lands or sell it to a leaseholder – said Tomaszewski. He also noticed, that this kind of law was obtained on rural areas. It is logical, according to Tomaszewski, to transfer this rationing to urban areas. Leader of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania expressed his hopes that the amendment to restitution bill, created by Rita Tamašiuniene and Wanda Krawczonok, would find the countenance of parliament majority. During the yesterday’s press conference of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, deputy Tamašiunienė informed that the new legal solution in land restitution was being made.

– We weight the opportunities and we collaborate with the Department of Agriculture in order to enable a compensation of state forests for returning lands – deputy informed. Tamašiunienė noticed that at those days state forest were sold by tender and the received means were aimed at money compensation to previous owners for the restoration of properties.

– Previous land owners are dissatisfied with that solution – Tamašiunienė pointed out. She also emphasised that the value established by state – 6 000 Lithuanian litas for one hectare of non-turned land – did not suffice the previous owners.

Moreover, MEP Tomaszewski said that the given amount of a state compensation was ridiculous because the difference, comparatively to market price, could sometimes account for one thousand.

During the conference, the representatives of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania shared the good news. According to data presented by Tax Inspection, the party received the biggest financial backing of society. As Tomaszewski informed, in the previous year, over 13 thousand of people deduct 1 percent of taxes to AWPL.

– It is the biggest proportion of people, who supported the political parties – said Tomaszewski. He noticed that those result rigidly rejected the opinion surveys, which showed a weak public support for Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania. According to Tomaszewski, those surveys have never been objective towards AWPL.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/10/04/plan-awpl-zakonczenia-procesu-zwrotu-ziemi/

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