The Administrative Court has repeatedly imposed fines of up to one thousand litas on Liucina Kotlovska. Now, as a result of the actions of the Government Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania and the bailiff, the judge asked the woman about her financial position to impose a fine of one thousand litas for each day of delay in complying with the order to remove bilingual (Lithuanian and Polish) street names' signs from the houses of inhabitants of the area.
The Administrations of the Šalčininkai and Vilnius districts are threatened with fines of a few thousands litas or even imprisonment finally, for failing to remove Polish street names' signs. The problem smoldered for three years, so it would now gain strength in the form of enforcement proceedings taken against the directors of the two local government areas.
According to the Lithuanian System of Administrative Division, the director of the district is the head of the executive power in this district. For several years, heavy penalties for not removing bilingual street signs hanging on the private houses of citizens have been imposed on them.
Code of Administrative Violations of the Republic of Lithuania provides that failure to comply with the requirements of the Officer of the State Language Inspectorate, when not using the state language, threatens to reprimands, fines for directors of institutions, organizations, and companies ranging from 300 to 600 litas. In the case of repeated violations, a fine will increase twice - from 600 to 1.5 thousand. litas.
Liucina Kotlovska was in the most dramatic case. The penalty is to be enforced from her personal property.
'On 16th May a hearing during which the judgment is to be made in my case will be held. Then the amount which I will have to pay will be indicated. There will not be an appeal to this decision and the penalty will be enforced by a bailiff,' reports Kotlovska in the interview with Nasz Dziennik.
The whole thing comes to interests on penalties imposed in mid-2011. The woman was punished several times because of this.
'I have paid 500 or 1,000 litas for five or six times. Yet, I have not paid another penalty. Now the amount is huge. A thousand litas is an amount near to a minimum wage, comparing to the Polish zloty, it is about 1.2 thousand,' explains Kotłowska.
According to Bogusław Rogalski, former Member of the European Parliament and currently an ECR Adviser for International Affairs, the situation is dramatic.
'This is a kind of intimidation of Polish community. It is also an attempt of a financial destruction of local offices' holders and flagrant violation of the rights of the Polish minority in Lithuania,' says Rogalski.
Rogalski recalls also the case of Boleslav Daškevič, the Administrative director of Šalčininkai district. Fines were repeatedly imposed also on him for Polish street names' signs.
Two years ago the Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the plates with bilingual (Lithuanian and Polish) names of streets in Vilnius Region have to be removed and replaced with plates with an inscriptions in Lithuanian. The decision is final and not subject to appeal. Local authorities emphasize, however, that they do not have the tools to enforce the inhabitants to remove boards from their private properties.
During the court hearings, Liucina Kotlovska has repeatedly asked to provide her with a way to enforce the decision of the court. As it turned out, she did not receive any specific answer.
'The government wants me to simply punish people, but there are no legal possibilities. I did not want to punish these people, because I did not hang these plates. There are signs with Lithuanian names on public buildings, schools, offices. I have no right to enter private properties,' the director of the Vilnius district underlines.
Property owners, Poles, who have lived there for years, categorically refuse to remove the signs. In addition to the old pre-war signs and those that have been hanged after the collapse of the Soviet Union, brand new ones have emerged in recent years.
It is a clear opposition to the activities of the Lithuanian authorities, who have banned the spelling of names, geographical features, streets, and places in its original form.
According to the director Kotlovska, no institution of the state or local government keeps a record of the property on which the signs appear in the original language. Basically, in Lithuania during the past three years, the measures against the Polish community for the use of bilingual signage in communities where Poles make up to 90 percent of the total population have been strengthened.
In the district of Šalčininkai, Poles constitute up to 80 percent of residents, in the Vilnius district - 60 percent. Both governments are managed by persons belonging to the Polish minority in Lithuania.
According to Rogalski, this unique (in the context of the European Union) situation violates the European standards in the area of the protection of the rights of national minorities, which are, inter alia, included in the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Polish-Lithuanian Treaty.
'This is an obvious example of discrimination on grounds of nationality. I recall that the Lithuanian minority in Poland enjoys wide privileges including the use of bilingual place names. This is the right approach of Poland to the issues of national minorities. There is a lack of such reciprocity on the side of Lithuania,' says Rogalski.
'I turn to you with the request for an action aimed at the protection of the rights of our compatriots in Lithuania according to European standards and the Polish-Lithuanian Treaty,' Rogalski says.
According to Jarosław Sellin, deputy of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, the matter of enforcement proceedings against the director of the Vilnius district should be handed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
'The Ministry should intervene in defense of the Polish minority or any Pole, who because of his attitude and fight for the rights of the Polish minority is persecuted, in any case of this kind,' evaluates the deputy.
The parliamentary committee meeting on the Polish-Lithuanian relations will take place in the coming days. Sellin says that it will be a very good opportunity to ask the Ministry about the problem regarding the imposition of fines for Poles working in local government areas of Vilnius and Šalčininkai by Lithuanian authorities.
'We will direct the inquiries on the matter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to find out what steps are taken or to be taken in this matter,' Adam Lipiński, club mate of Sellin, adds.
Maciej Walaszczyk
http://www.naszdziennik.pl
