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Archived Articles
Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Poland: Confiscation Compensation
On 22nd March the Polish president Alexander Kwasniewski imposed veto on a bill with amendments in the privatization law. They were intended to compensate people for their properties confiscated or nationalized during the decades of communism without any proper remuneration. They also intended to compensate people from the former eastern provinces of the country that after the World War II were occupied by the former Soviet Union and now are situated in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. This veto leaves Poland (that was the first country to accept free market reforms in Eastern Europe at the beginning of 90s), the last remaining among the former Eastern block without such kind of legislation. Kwasniewski was quoted by the news agencies to say at the news conference that the bill wasn't good at all, that it contradicted the principles of justice and that if accepted it could have made people unequal. The bill was heavily criticized abroad because of the citizenship requirement for the beneficiaries (to apply for restitution you had to prove that you were Polish citizen in 1999). This means that even if the president didn't have imposed a veto on the bill, it could have benefited only present Polish citizens thus making former citizens (almost all of them Jews in the USA and Israel) ineligible for any compensation in the future. From the other side the bill was opposed by the Polish party of former communists (today in opposition). They say that if approved the bill will be too costly for the state. Given the fact that the opposition political forces represent almost the half of the lower House of the Polish parliament (the Sejm), the President's veto will certainly mean that the bill will be put off because in order to override it the House needs three-fifths majority. The long-awaited restitution bill was previously approved by the Sejm (7th March). It called for compensation equal to 50 percent of the value of the properties confiscated between 1944 and 1962 either in kind or (if this wasn't possible) in form of the government bonds. To understand why Poland is the only country in the former Eastern bloc to reject the restitution we have to look at its recent history that doesn't match any of the other former communist countries in Europe (PLEASE make here a link to the first article about Poland). Unlike any other country situated in the past on the eastern side of the "iron curtain" the communists in Poland returned the land to the farmers in the 50s. Unlike any other country the war devastation in Poland was so huge that many cities had to be build from the ground zero (for example Warsaw in 1944 was destroyed at 97 percent). After the war the country was rebuilt collectively so any particular claim on any particular property will meet fierce opposition from other people who occupied it after the war because they have lost everything. The foreign citizens weren't included among the beneficiaries of the failed bill because people in Poland fear they would have to compensate the legal heirs of millions Jews that once lived in the country*. The first reaction of the world Jewish organizations after the President's veto was that they will continue their lawsuits in the USA seeking the return of their properties. Only in Warsaw that means not less than 10 sq.kilometers right in the city center (4 sq.miles). Given only the actual price of the land - up to $100 per sq.meter (not to mention the buildings on it), the Jewish claims only in the capital city may reach $1 billion. It will be interesting after all to see who will take it. ----- * - In 1939 in Poland lived 3,5 million Jews out of population of little more than 30 million. Only in Warsaw the Jews represented more than one-third of the total population of 1,2 million.
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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Poland.
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