An important judgment: The District Court in Warsaw decided that the State Treasury and the Ministry of National Education would have to pay to the Ozimek commune 625 thousand PLN compensation. In this way, the state is to cover the costs incurred by the local government due to reducing the financing of the number of hours of German language learning for the German minority in Poland. In 2021 such a correction to budget reported by Janusz Kowalski, what He limited expenses by nearly PLN 40 million. Interestingly, such changes were not introduced in the case of lessons of other minorities.
The municipalities began to work: In the 2022/2023 school year, the state paid one of three hours a week, and the other two financed local governments. Most municipalities, including Ozimek just She maintained the number of hours, despite less financing. “We decided then that the possibility of learning to our children cannot be limited, and the lands we live on were always characterized by understanding and multiculturalism. And regardless of whether there are people with a German historical origin or not, we wanted to give the opportunity to make parents decide if they want their children to learn at additional German. Why? Houser, mayor of Ozimek.
This is just the beginning? Parallel to this decision, the State Treasury was allowed. The District Court in Warsaw stood on the side of the commune, although the verdict is still unlawful. Rafał Bartek, chairman of the Union of German socio-cultural associations in Poland, revealed in an interview with the local website Opolska360.plthat all in all 9 municipalities filed a similar claim. – This first sentence shows that they were praying rightly. Let me remind you that there were 40 such municipalities in Opole Silesia. I think they should consider such a path – he said. If, indeed, all 49 communes affected by this change decided to claim their arguments in court and it would end with a similar judgment, This would cost a budget over PLN 30 million.
Janusz Kowalski indignant: – There is no legal basis for this, as I said, an inspection should be carried out, because in most municipalities, unfortunately, this money is extorted. This is very visible on the numbers. If there are 150,000 citizens Polish in the German minority, and the lessons are used by 50,000 children, it can be seen that Municipalities dishonestly benefit from what this pathology is about. Polish citizens are enrolled who are not in the German minority so that the municipality receives a double subsidy. It is simply unfair – he argued in an interview with Radio Opole after the judgment was issued by the court.
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Sources: Business Insider, opolska360.pl, Mirosław Wieszołek [Facebook], Radio Opole