PETITION TO THE EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT
I the undersigned
.................................................................................................
Citizen of.....................................................................
Profession................................................................
Full address (Postal Code)........................................submit herewith to the Members of
the European Parliament
the following Petition:
Concerning the Restitution or equitable Compensation for the
Properties illegally and illegitimately confiscated by totalitarian Governments of ex-Nazi
and ex-Communist Countries, and those properties, which were illegally incorporated in the
patrimony of some National and Foreign Financial Institutions.
- Granted that every Member of the European Parliament is
elected democratically and freely in his/her own Country of affiliation; that every State
with parliamentary representation in the European Parliament is an integral part of the
European Union; that all Countries participating in the Community have solemnly adhered to
all the Fundamental Principles of Human Rights expressed in the manifold declarations;
- Granted that every Member of the Parliament has to abide by
all the Fundamental Principles of Human Rights signed by their Countries of affiliation;
- Granted that the totalitarian regimes, including the Nazi and
Communist dictatorships have caused incommensurable human suffering and damages, degrading
not only every conceivable human right but the very same human spirit;
- Granted that the iniquity of communism has devoted itself to
the systematic destruction of proprietary rights and subsequently the rights of private
and public ownership, including factual, personal, commercial and financial properties,
impeding thereby every possible industrial activity as well as repealing by fact and by
law any public, political or religious activity, to the extent of prohibiting any form of
individual professional practice;
- Granted that the illegitimate and illegal confiscation of
private properties, without any equitable remuneration on behalf of Nazi and Communist
totalitarian regimes, was deliberately enforced in order to persecute people because of
their religion, their nationality, their social origin, or to eliminate the latter due to
their opposition to the such regimes;
- Granted that the Nazi and Communist Leaders often obtained the
properties confiscated from the victims through the policies they themselves supported;
- Granted that some people and some communities have often been
victimized twice and have suffered confiscation without remuneration under both Nazi and
subsequent Communist regimes.
- Granted that churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious
owned property, such as hospitals, schools and orphanages, have been destroyed or
confiscated with the sole purpose to break spiritual devotion and religious loyalty, to
the extent of dismantling entire religious communities;
- Granted that Nazis and Communists used Foreign Financial
Institutions to reorganize and to unjustly acquire properties, illegally confiscated from
their victims.
- Granted that some National and Foreign Financial Institutions
have violated the fiduciary mandate of their clients using their patrimonies for personal
financial use, denying constantly legitimate heirs access to the latter (e.g. holocaust
victims).
- Granted that the refugees from communism not only suffered the
illegal confiscation of their private property, but were also often forced by the
Communists who governed their Country to relinquish their citizenship in order to protect
themselves and their families from retaliations;
- Granted that States which are members of the Organization for
the Safety and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have agreed to give full recognition and
protection to all types of property, including private property, and the legal right to
request equitable and effective compensation in cases where private property is acquired
for public utility;
- Granted that Countries in central and eastern Europe, the
Caucasus and Central Asia have entered a post-Communist period of transition and
democratic development, and like many other countries, have begun, without much success,
the difficult and lacerating process of trying to correct the violations of previous
totalitarian regimes.
- Granted that in many Countries of Central and Oriental Europe
laws have been implemented to guarantee the restitution or "virtual"
compensation for illegally seized properties by totalitarian regimes;
laws which are full of restrictions and conditions, cunningly studied in such a manner
that for one reason or another, all claims become groundless, maintaining thereby the
totalitarian expropriating governments’ objective;
- Granted that some restrictive regulations (legal as well as
administrative restrictions) have been recently introduced in the laws of several of the
above mentioned Countries,
e.g.: one must be a resident or citizen of the Country from which one now demands
restitution or equitable compensation;
the latter together with all other restrictions sustaining the communist "status
quo" is arbitrary, discriminating and constitutes a violation of International Laws;
- Granted that democracy requires all Governments and their
administrative representatives, to act conform the laws passed by their own Parliaments in
accordance with International Standards;
- Granted that within the European Community two Countries (i.e.
Germany and Italy) suffered at the end of the second world war, the seizure of territory,
which benefited Countries which were subsequently governed by totalitarian regimes;
that Former East Germany (fortunately only a temporary division of Germany), Istria,
Dalmatia and Fiume (former parts of Italy - today in Croatia) were ruled by communist
regimes,
that citizens, German like Italian not only suffered the violation of Fundamental Human
Rights, but also experienced repudiation by their own country (at least Italy).
- Granted that Countries like Germany and Italy, due to war
events, have numerous citizens, whose property was unjustly confiscated, and yet neither
of the receptive governments have ever provided these citizens with legal instruments to
assert their rights.
For example German Citizens living within their own country are confronted with
insurmountable legal difficulties;
difficulties, which are not justifiable, and yet present, made intentionally to impede
victims their right of restitution or compensation.
- Granted the matter regarding to illegal confiscated property,
Italy (and also Germany) has passed laws which have never been fully executed;
stipulated bilateral agreements which have never been respected;
re-interpreted in a distorted manner whole chapters of numerous treaties, including the
Paris Peace Treaty;
it has deliberately and stubbornly ignored, trampled and disregarded all declarations of
Fundamental Human Rights;
- Granted that the absence or feasibility of legal devices to
ensure the restitution of illegal confiscated property pertains to all member-states of
the European Union.
- Granted that some states which like to denote themselves
democratic, but are in fact still communists (resp. neo-communists), fore the ruling class
as well as the laws in force have barely changed.
- Granted that the neo-communist Countries have been governed
for many decades by people who have scrupulously indoctrinated most of today's rulers as
well as the use of laws and regulations, preconceived by the former communist regimes,
induces their incapability to govern a community with the legislative tools of a liberal
democracy;
that the regimes have constantly opposed all private initiative, forcing so, the exodus of
the remaining entrepreneurs, impoverishing thereby the Country’s true wealth (private
enterprise); "bestowments" from incompetent bureaucrats, who still run the
countries today;
many generations will be needed, to prepare and produce capable executives and experienced
entrepreneurs from a population, which was suppressed over various decades.
that, the appropriation of funds through European Union supporting these pseudo-liberal
democracies, should instead be used to give an incentive to reinstated former owners, so
the accomplishment of privatization can act as a catalyst for the birth and development of
liberal-democratic ideals;
- Granted that nearly all member states of the European Union
have done little or nothing to redress the illegalities perpetrated by former dictatorial
governments;
instead of restoring justice they have been trying to consolidate their own illegitimacies
and justify those of other countries;
- Granted that, all governments, many of which are members of
the European Union and others which aspire to become members, involved with liabilities
for the neglect of fundamental Human Rights, will not spontaneously change their attitude
towards this issue, unless they are forced by law and by a magistracy ‘super
partes’ - an expression used by the European Union, which prevents them from
resolving actions concerning Fundamental Human Rights with hasty solutions that are of
political nature;
- Granted that all countries governed by a dictators or puppet
governments imposed by occupying powers, have skeletons in their closets,
skeletons that are still yet to be removed.
E.g. The German reunification brought out the iniquities and the illegalities of the
former Nazi regime, as well as others inherited from the communist regime in the ex German
Democratic Republic.
- Granted that the non-resolution of such illegalities is in
itself a further distressing insult to Human Rights;
- Granted that, it would be incorrect and discrediting to judge
those people, who refuse to provide suitable legal tools as helpless followers of a
perverse ideology;
- Granted that the menacing attitude and ideology of former
dictators remain, even after their disappearance, in many indoctrinated minds.
- Granted that the denial of justice, the asperity towards the
victims, the treating of the weak and defenceless with extreme harshness and considering
every diversity as a threat, is quite common to all extremists including the communist
regime;
- Granted that the communist ideology, instilled and assimilated
like a religion, has left deep impressions on both minds and spirits of followers as well
as opponents of the regime;
- Granted that the manner for reasoning and giving significance
to words and terms have always been profoundly distorted by communist ideology;
- Granted that communism due to it’s inherit deceiving
nature, using and obtaining support from 'useful' idiots, organizing itself in basic
compartments (that have never been dissolved), lurking, exploiting every minute portion of
power, makes this ideology so much more dangerous as it inclines itself to give a docile
impression, whilst maneuvering everything to it’s own advantage, including the
independent magistracy;
- Granted that before recommending possible remedies, one should
at this point take a moment to reflect. One should bear in mind that hundreds of thousands
of people during the course of the elapsing century have been suppressed and forced into
exile. Many of them deprived of all their possessions - due to age or to ill-health were
unable to re-build a dignified life and died in poverty and misery;
I DEMAND:
that the European Parliament, after having verified the
veracity and consistency of the previous statements and of all the declarations made
therein, enacts the following:
Article 1
All laws, Regulations, Treaties, Agreements, and any other
acts stipulated at any level (none excluded) initiated or imposed by any of the member
states of the European Union, which have violated, directly or indirectly, during the
Twentieth Century, the Fundamental Rights of Private Ownership are to be considered void,
null, and divested of any legal value.
Article 2
All nationalization, confiscation, expropriation and any
other procedures that have been contrived by whomever, to appropriate other people’s
possessions, are to be considered illegal.
Article 3
All Laws, Regulations, Treaties and any other acts
stipulated, initiated or imposed, which have been enacted to regulate that referred to in
articles 1 and 2 and those enactments which do not foresee restitution of properties
illegally subtracted from the legitimate owners are to be considered void, null, divested
of any legal value.
Exceptions are to be made, where expropriations were destined
to public utility and have been equitably (market value) and immediately compensated.
All other still existing possessions, which were illegally confiscated, have to be
returned to their legitimate owners in the same state they were prior to their
subtraction.
For all deteriorated or destroyed confiscated possessions an
equitable and immediate compensation (market value) is payable.
Reimbursement is due to all real estate owners for loss of
profits regarding the period, where rights of ownership could not be exercised.
Article 4
All persons, who have been recognized as the rightful owners,
in accordance with the laws in force of the country of origin, before the expropriation
took place, have a right to be reinstated (meaning restitution or compensation) - this
applies also to their legitimate heirs.
Article 5
Should the title-holders for restitution of property or for
equitable compensation be dead or otherwise irretrievable, the right of succession must
pass over to "Associations" (e.g. Treuhandanstalt or Privatization Funds), which
will provide for the redistribution of the possessions among its affiliates.
Article 6
The still yet to enact Law and its inherent Regulations are
valid for all citizens of the European Union as well as for citizens of different
nationalities, which, provided that their legitimate possessions are located inside the
territory of the European Union, have also suffered the abuse of their Ownership Rights as
mentioned in articles 1 and 2.
Article 7
The here implied Law must apply to all cases where
illegitimacy subsists: Resorting directly to the Judicial Organs of the European Union,
where appropriate and efficient legal measures are unavailable or non-existent for
Community citizens.
Article 8
The European Union will constitute a Commission to trace all
documentation available, relevant to this issue and expect all Members States of the Union
to collaborate in order to facilitate this assignment.
Article 9
The regulations for the application of this Law must be
prepared and made accessible within six months after the date of publication in the
Official Gazette.
Article 10
The Law comes into force the same day of its publication in
the Official Gazette.
The insinuated law:
- asserts that all the recommendations expressed both by the
Senate and by the House of Deputies of the United States of America, through Resolutions
19 and 562 should be followed, and that the European Union should assimilate these
proposals, in order to avoid rivalry in matters of Legality and Justice.
- acknowledges the effort, which many post-communist countries
or other totalitarian regimes are making to reach an equitable solution concerning
confiscation issues.
- indicates the urgency to those countries, which still have not
complied with the restitution of properties illegally expropriated from their legitimate
owners or, equitably compensated the victims conform the principles of justice;
- summons the restitution of properties belonging to Religious
Communities including the Jewish ones, making amends, so to speak, to the exceptionally
delicate issue of Holocaust victims;
and convokes any other Nation whose Laws provide restrictions towards those who request
restitution or an equitable compensation of their properties illegally expropriated and
plundered by the Nazis or the Communist regimes,
- calls upon Croatia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Rumania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and any other Nation whose laws and regulations,
inherent to illegally expropriated properties, limit the restitution of real ownership or
deny an equitable compensation for those properties which have been destroyed, to the
people who do not reside in, or are not citizens of the country from which they are now
requesting restitution or an equitable compensation, to remove such restrictions;
- urges Financial Institutions within the Community, as well as
the ones in foreign countries, who have legal authority over illegally expropriated
possessions to restore the properties to their legitimate owners.
- emphasizes the urgency to former totalitarian countries to
adopt efficient legal measures to guarantee restitution or equitable compensation.
- establishes once and for all that within the European Union's
territory all the above-mentioned illegitimacies will be rectified by Community Law.
Recapitulating:
- all properties illegally expropriated are to be entirely
reinstated to their legitimate owners;
- every Law, Act, Provision, Regulation, etc. enforced by
totalitarian regimes which are detrimental to Fundamental Human Rights are to be
considered null and void from the moment they came into force - All consequences caused by
these illegitimate actions must be equitably compensated
- a just and equitable compensation is due for deteriorated
possessions, based on their actual market value as well as interests.
- it is essential that legislative measures are installed and
used from now onwards by the magistrates of the European Union.
- implement within the European Union a legislative measure that
allows single individuals or communities to resort directly to the European Union in cases
where, they were impeded or not granted in their own country of origin the possibility to
initiate or to conclude legal process for violations of Fundamental Human Rights. (*)
Whoever, and for any reason whatsoever, refuses to
acknowledge the need to implement such mechanisms is not much more sagacious nor more
juste than those who perpetrated these same illegalities.
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….…………..1999
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Proponent’s signature
(*) ‘Fundamental Human Rights’ signifies the
complete explicit statement in the ‘UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS’,
adopted by the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the UNITED NATIONS on December 10, 1948, and confirmed
by the Final Document of the Helsinki Conference, by the OSCE documents, by the Paris
Charter, etc.
The Petition has to be addressed to:
Mr. A. GUILLEN ZANON
Head Division Activity Deputies
General Direction of the Presidency
Direction for Programming of Parliamentary
Affairs
c/o European Parliament
L – (2929) LUXEMBOURG |
