From the Hatred to Cooperation

For two days (3-4 December) the participants of the international conference 'European Standards of the National and Ethnic Minority Rights Protection'  organised in the House of Polish Culture in Vilnius discussed and shared their opinions and observations on the European standards of protecting the rights of national and ethnic minorities. The initiator of a conference was MEP Valdemar Tomaševski. The meetings were organised under the auspices of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament.

The deliberations of the conference gained a lot of interest from the representatives of the Polish community in Lithuania, high school students as well as Polish and Lithuanian media. At the beginning of the conference Valdemar Tomaševski, MEP and the Chairman of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, stressed, that despite Lithuania's membership in the European Union the rights of national minorities, including Polish as well, are not fully respected. Recently, a clear regress has been noticeable in the field of the protection of minorities' rights and this raises reasonable concerns for Poles in Lithuania.

As the initiator of the conference stated, the purpose of the meeting was to present how in some Member States the problems of national minorities are being solved; how starting from hatred people can come to widely understood cooperation. 'The leading idea of the conference was to bring the standards of the minority rights protection closer and convince the authorities to use them,' the MEP said.

Not a Legal, but a Political Issue

According to Mr Tomaševski, Lithuania continually worsens and narrows the situation of Polish national minority instead of improving and expanding it. It is visible in various fields, e.g. in education, political and social life, culture. Problems concerning the spelling of names have not been solved for years, as well as the problems of free usage of mother tongue in public life. The process of land recovery to its rightful owners has stuck in stalemate too. Lithuanian authorities instead of returning the land to its owners just expropriate it.

The actions hampering the use of mother tongue in the areas where Poles constitute the vast majority of residents are incomprehensible and inexplicable. The administrative penalties for the use of bilingual information boards and street names are not acceptable in contemporary Europe. As an example of the rights restriction for the minorities' participation in the political life of the country MEP presented the introduction of the electoral threshold in 1996 and tendentious division into constituencies, as the result of which Poles have minor rights to elect their representatives to the Parliament. 'National minority should either be in one constituency or should constitute the majority in several constituencies, but this rule is not respected in our country,' Mr Tomaševski deplored. He added, that the usage of mother tongue during the election campaign is prohibited as well, although during the referendum on accession to the EU there were Polish bulletins issued also, but it was a one-time positive precedent, which was soon forgotten.

Mr Tomaševski has also pointed that the government grants go to those national minorities' organizations, which are few and do not pose any problems to the authorities. Whereas more numerous national minorities, including Polish too, are subsidized minimally. The MEP said, that the solution for the problems of Polish national minority in Lithuania is not a legal, but rather a political issue.

Minority as a treasure, not a problem

Michał Kamiński, the Leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament, at the beginning of the conference courteously pointed out that the Polish community can be proud of its representative in the European Parliament. Moreover, the leader stressed, that the issues concerning national minorities and the protection of fundamental European values are the main tasks of European Conservatives and Reformists Group.

'Mainatining good relations with Lithuania is the principle of Polish politics, and the EU membership gives the opportunity to promote positive values and solutions, inter alia in the field of the protection of national minorities' rights. In Kamiński's opinion, the court order to remove the street name plates in Polish in the Vilnius regions inhabited mostly by Poles, worsens the atmosphere in the Polish-Lithuanian relations. 'If such activity took place in Poland, I would be the first one to protest,' the Chairman stated, 'it is not in my role to assess the actions of Lithuania's authorities, but the bailiff's order to remove the bilingual street name plates and the fights against national minorities by adopting administrative measures are unacceptable in modern Europe,' the Chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament said. Moreover he stressed, that the solution for contentious issues is possible only through dialogue and mutual respect.

However, according to Kamiński, the Polish state and Polish MEPs should not demonstrate too much activity in the issue of the protection of Poles in Lithuania, as this is the task of Lithuanian members. Moreover, Poles should 'strictly, but friendly' remind Lithuanians to observe the European standards. Mr Kamiński was astonished and indignant when he found out that the Chief Official Ethics Commission asked Tomaševski to justify his speeches in the European Parliament. 'The authorities of any Member State do not have the right to control and interfere with the work of a MEP,' Mr  Kamiński emphasised. He also wished Lithuanians not to treat the Polish minority as a problem, but as a treasure.

Janusz Skolimowski, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Lithuania, commended the idea of organizing the conference and noted that the higher the level of democracy is, the more rights national minorities have. The diplomatist said that one of the tasks of the international deliberations is to overcome stereotypes. He also noticed that after Poland adopted the Law on National Minorities in 2005 the issues of national minorities have disappeared from the folds of the press.

In the Right Place at the Right Time

Valentinas Mazuronis, the leader of the opposition, praised the very idea of convening the conference, which 'was held in the right place and, what is important, was organised exactly in Vilnius.' As one of the reasons for not solving the emerged problems, he mentioned the lack of the exchange of views, discussions, and the willingness to listen to each other. Moreover, Mazuronis said that everything is going in the positive direction, but it all needs some time and dialogues which will help to remove the 'little Berlin walls,' that still can be met on our way. The leader of the opposition also mentioned, that he does not accept the charges of the lack of loyalty to Lithuania against MEP Tomaševski. 'I do not agree with the accusations against Tomaševski. I my opinion he seeks to resolve the issue according to the European standards,' said Mazuronis.

In the Need of University

MEP Phd Lajos Bokros presented the problems of Hungarian minority in Romania and noted that during the communist era one of the most cruel regimes in Europe dominated in this country. The imprint of the regime is still felt in Romania, as it remains to be a unitary state as before. According to the MEP, Romania has still much to be done in the process of democratization if it want to join the states of EU, in which human and minority rights are strictly observed. Phd Bokros stressed, that the Hungarian population of 1.5 million representatives is located in the heart of Romania and one of the fundamental tasks is to establish a university with the official Hungarian language.

Blingualis is not a Problem

Helena Legowicz, a member of the Congress of Poles in the Czech Republic, at the beginning of her talk stressed that Poles in Czech can feel that they live in a democratic state. They have their own newspapers, regional television, theatres.

Bilingual street name plates do not interfere with anyone. The plates can be put in the localities where Poles constitute 10 percent of all inhabitants. The condition is that the Polish organizations have to ask for the plates themselves. 'In 15 communities the bilingual boards are already arranged,' Mrs Legowicz boasted. She also added, that Czech Railways on its own initiative introduced bilingual inscriptions at train stops in the localities inhabited by Poles. Moreover, Czech Government has allocated 5 million crowns for setting information boards in two languages.

Tadeuš Andžejevski analyzed and compared the situation of Lithuanians in Poland and Poles in Lithuania. In most cases the Polish community in Lithuania was not in favour.  One of the problems that Lithuanians have not recently solved was the refusal of the Sejny town authorities to give the name of Bishop Antanas Baranauskas for one of the streets of the town.

Negative Attitude

Phd Jan Mincevič pointed out that regardless political affiliation of the governing teams, the negative attitude toward national minorities remains constant. He listed several drastic examples of land return, e.g. Stanislaw Czajkowski has been applying for the reimbursement of his patrimony for 17 years, had 8 hearings, but his land was given to newcomers, and just the marshland near Paberžė settlement was returned to Mr Czajkowski, but he himself still does not own it. Following the adoption of the Law on 'the Great Vilnius' in 1994 10.5 thousand hectares of land were taken from the farmers from Vilnius regions. Another law on land transfer from the depths of Lithuania to Vilnius regions badly hit Poles again. The land was not returned to them, but it was readily and without a queue distributed to newcomers.

Denmark as an Example

Margareta Kępińska-Jacobsen, the co-founder and a member of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Denmark, who knows the problems of the Polish community, and follows them since the revival of Lithuanian independence, told about the difficult way which the Danish minority in Germany and German in Denmark have passed. 'Initially both minorities treated each other with hostility, then properly lived next to each other, but not until after World War II learned to live for themselves, i.e. respecting each other and taking advantage of the extensive rights and liberties,' Mrs Margareta said. As Mrs Kępińska-Jacobsen claimed, both minorities have all the rights provided by the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Thanks to that, all the conflicts, tensions have disappeared, the minorities in both countries do not feel threatened or discriminated in any way. 'In my opinion, it is worth to take a closer look at the solutions which have been applied in Denmark, where the matter of the minorities has been perhaps ideally settled,' Kępińska-Jacobsen suggested.

Zygmunt Żdanowicz