The ministry says the bill does not amount to restitution, it aims at moderating property wrongs through other means. Tlusty says the intended level of financial compensation is anti-constitutional, but the ministry claims the bill fulfils the principles repeatedly adjudicated by the Constitutional Court. "The objections by deputy Vlastimil Tlusty either reflect misunderstanding of the essence of the ODS rebels unlikely to cause fall of Czech government ...
Czech govt ODS MP not to support bill on settlement with church ...
Latest news - 19-04-2008 ...
Czech police guard Terezin wartime memorial ... bill, or they intentionally distort it," ministry spokesman Jan Cieslar said. He said Tlusty makes serious mistakes when he compares restitution under the law on land and a comprehensive property settlement between the state and churches set in the government bill. Under the bill, the state would return about one third of the property of religious orders the communist regime confiscated, the rest would be compensated with 83 billion crowns.
The sum would eventually climb up to 270 billion crowns due to interests over the next 60 years. Besides, the state would pay a "transitional" contribution to the churches over the first 20 years. Tlusty objects to both the sum and the 60-year payments calendar. Cieslar said today the churches will sign an agreement with the state in which they will state that they consider their property demands as settled. Czech society therefore has a chance to get rid of years-long problems once and for all. Tlusty says the sum of 83 billion crowns that also the opposition criticises has been reached on the basis of market prices. The ministry claims the sum has been set on the basis of a qualified appraisal of the value of the original church property as from February 25, 1948. Tlusty also said the settlement between the state and churches could have long ago been carried out on the basis of the law on land. Cieslar, however, said the two laws cannot be compared. The law on land is a restitution law while the government bill does not have this character. He said the government bill differs from the law on land. The bill, unlike the restitution law, does not provide for substitution for the properties that have not been returned, compensation for the depreciation of properties and compensation for live and dead stock. The law on land provided in case of restitution for financial compensation set on the basis of prices valid in the early 1990s. The ministry says the current reality does not correspond to these prices. The burden that has arisen from the 17-year adjournment of solving the property of churches and religious communities issue cannot be borne by the entitled entities, Cieslar said. ($1=16.320 crowns)
(Ceske Noviny)
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