MINELRES: Poland: Silesian Autonomy Movement excluded from EU accession referendum campaign

Sat May 10 09:41:41 2003

Original sender: Bartlomiej Swiderek <[email protected]>

Dear All,

According to Polish law all political parties which polled at least 3%
of votes nationwide and all organizations active in Poland (its whole
territory) whose activities are linked with enlargement should be
allowed to take part in an official campaign before the accession
referendum.

On April 28th the State Electoral Commission (PKW) decided that the
activities of the Silesian Autonomy Movement (RAS) are not linked with
the subject of the referendum which will be held on 7 and 8th June, thus
excluding our party from active participation in the campaign.

On April 30th we appealed to the Polish Supreme Court explaining that
our activities are linked with the enlargement and citing parts of our
statutes where it reads that objectives of the Silesian Autonomy
Movement are:

- making people of Silesia active in all fields of their every-day life
and make them feel responsible for their nation
- taking part in the proccess of integration of all ethnic, religious
and social groups living in Silesia.

We also described our pro-European activities, including our EFA
involvements, saying that this proves they we are very strongly linked
with the specific subject of the accession referendum. We also demanded
that the PKW decission should be annulled as it is incompatible with
Polish law.

The Supreme's Court rule should be declared by the end of this week.

Bartlomiej Swiderek
EFA in the European Parliament
PHS 2 C 25
Rue Wiertzstraat
B-1047 Bruxelles
tel: 0032 (02) 284 16 65
fax: 0032 (02) 284 17 71

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