The Warsaw District Court awarded the municipality of Ozimek compensation for the reduction of subsidies—this occurred during the PiS government—for German language lessons for the German minority. This could result in Poland’s authorities having to pay substantial amounts to German communities in Poland.
Huge sums of money
In December 2021, the Polish parliament adopted an amendment to the budget proposal for the upcoming year, cutting the subsidy for German language education in Poland by nearly 40 million PLN. It was also announced that further cuts would follow in the coming years. At the time, the Minister of Education and Science, Przemysław Czarnek, stated that this was a necessary step. As a result of these changes, the number of hours dedicated to teaching German to the German minority was reduced from three to just one per week.
“It can’t continue like this, where in Poland we pay 236 million PLN for the German minority and the German language, while in Germany, where there are 2.2 million Poles, the federal government contributes zero euros to the Polish minority,” said Minister Czarnek during a parliamentary debate.
Meanwhile, the Warsaw District Court has issued a ruling that could lead to Poland’s state having to pay huge compensation. The municipality of Ozimek, in the Opole region, was awarded 625,590.85 PLN as compensation for the PiS government’s reduction of the subsidy for German language education. The ruling is not final, so the state treasury can appeal. The question, however, is whether the Tusk government, which has been seen as more accommodating towards Berlin, will defend Poland’s position.
Business Insider Polska calculates that there are 49 municipalities in Poland in a similar situation to Ozimek. If all of them filed lawsuits and won their cases, the state treasury would have to pay a total of 31.8 million PLN in compensation. At present, 8 lawsuits similar to the one filed by Ozimek are pending in court.