A Bug River property (, lit. ''property beyond the Bug River'') is a property which was within the territory of

interbellum In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

Poland (

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

) and was forcibly vacated by the evicted Polish landowners ( Bug River Poles) after 1945 when the territory ceased to be inside

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The name refers to the

Bug River The Bug or Western Bug is a major river in Central Europe that flows through Belarus (border), Poland, and Ukraine, with a total length of .Curzon Line, separating the so-called

Eastern Borderlands Eastern Borderlands (), often simply Borderlands (, ) was a historical region of the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic. The term was coined during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic with ...

from the rest of the current Polish territory. The Bug River land is today distributed between the states of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

."Bug River claims"
, Ministry of Treasury of the Republic of Poland (retrieved April 19, 2015) The claims for compensation for this sequestered land are known as the Bug River claims ().Sprawy zabużańskie
/ref>Anna Kandybowicz
Przesiedlenia i mienie zabużańskie – aspekty prawne
Szczecińskie Studia Archiwalno-Historyczne Tom I Szczecin 2017, pp. 159-176; Covers the state of affairs until 2005 Agreements made between the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the interim Polish government,

Government of National Unity A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nati ...

mostly concerned the evacuation of the population and did not set out any detailed rules for compensating owners of vacated property. The laws of Communist Poland had a limited number of provisions concerning issues related to ownership of agricultural land and estates. In modern Poland, a legislative provision was made on December 12, 2003, to form the basis of state compensation for Polish citizens against the value of their vacated property abroad, by offsetting the value of that vacated property, against an assessed sale price or rent arising from perpetual use. As of February 29, 2003, 82,000 applications for compensation were submitted, with a total estimated value of over 10,500 million PLN. Due to the unsatisfactory handling of matter it was raised before the Polish Constitutional Court in 2002. In 2004 the matter came before the

European Court for Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

in the test case: ''Broniowski v. Poland''.) The Court found

:A systemic problem connected with the malfunctioning of domestic legislation and practice caused by the failure to set up an effective mechanism to implement the "right to credit" of Bug River claimants ... with the consequence that not only the applicant in this particular case but also a whole class of individuals had been or were still denied the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions.

The Court noted that the matter was not satisfactorily resolved for some 80,000 claimants. Further decrees on the implementation of the right to compensation include: *Decree of July 8, 2005 - "O realizacji prawa do rekompensaty z tytułu pozostawienia nieruchomości poza obecnymi granicami Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej" (Dz. U. z 2005r. Nr 169 poz. 1418). *Decree of September 8, 2006 - "O zmianie ustawy o realizacji prawa do rekompensaty z tytułu pozostawienia nieruchomości poza obecnymi granicami Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej oraz niektórych innych ustaw" (Dz. U. 2006r.Nr 195 poz. 1437). In February 2014 President

Bronisław Komorowski Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who was the fifth president of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski previously served as Ministry of National Defence (Poland), Minister of National Defence ...

signed a decree to update further the regulations relating to compensation for Bug River landowners. In particular, the decree removed a number of restrictions on the right to compensation."Prezydent podpisał ustawę ws. rekompensat za mienie zabużańskie"
/ref> In so doing, it addressed the issues raised before the Constitutional Court and the ECHR on the subject. Due to the aspiration of Ukraine to join the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, a discussion has arisen in Poland about whether Ukraine would be willing to share the burden of compensation. In August 2007 the Supreme Court of Poland issued a judgement that Bug River claims regarding Ukraine cannot be resolved in Polish civil courts and belong to Ukrainian courts, due to international agreements between Ukraine and Poland. Therefore these claims must be resolved by administrative means. Reportedly, Lithuania has only reluctantly addressed the claims of Poles for compensation/restitution."Nic co polskie Polakom na Litwie"
("Nothing Polish to be Returned to Poles in Lithuania"), '' Kurier Wilenski''

See also

References

Further reading