Mateusz Morawiecki made the statement in an interview with the niezalezna.pl website on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The PM said: “I am convinced that we will receive reparations from Germany, although it won’t happen quickly. Even the most difficult journey begins with the first step.”
He added: “For us, the first step was to prepare the report [on Poland’s World War II losses caused by Germany] for which I again thank MP Arkadiusz Mularczyk and the whole team of experts, eminent and courageous experts on this difficult matter.”
“The second step was to publish the report and submit a diplomatic note to the German government, which will happen soon,” Morawiecki stated.
'Poland didn't renounce reparations'
Morawiecki went on to say: “We have studied the whole rationale put forward by the German side and all those who claim that the issue is settled.”
He added: “A so-called resolution by Poland’s Council of Ministers, from 1953, is supposed to be of key importance. Yet no such resolution has been found in the archives.”
The PM also noted that “Poland wasn’t a free country at the time,” adding that “this ‘resolution’ was made under pressure from the Soviet Union and so is invalid ab initio.”
He stressed that Poland "didn't renounce reparations."
“Poland’s supposed renunciation of reparations is an imaginary legal act,” he said, adding that the Polish-German documents from 1970 and 1990 didn’t directly address the issue of reparations.
Morawiecki also stated: “In my view, the moral and axiological aspect of this process is as important as financial reparations.”
“It’s not just about money, historical validity and a country’s standing on the international arena are also immensely important,” the PM said.
Poland estimates its WWII losses caused by Germany at EUR 1.3 trillion
Last Thursday, Poland published a report estimating the country’s World War II losses at the hands of Germany at EUR 1.3 trillion.
The leader of the country’s ruling conservatives Law and Justice, Jarosław Kaczyński, said that a decision had been made to raise the issue of World War II reparations with Berlin.
Kaczyński added: “It’s about securing compensation, maybe through a long and arduous process, for everything that Germany, the German state, the German nation, did to Poland between 1939 and 1945.”
(pm)
Source: PAP, niezalezna.pl