The Sejm rejected the president's bill on aid to Ukrainians. Duplicates government regulations

The Sejm rejected the president's draft amendment to the law on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of that country. During the first reading of the bill in October, two motions to reject it were submitted. On Friday, the parliamentary majority supported them in a vote.

244 MPs voted to reject the project, 198 were against and three abstained.

The presidential draft of an amendment to the Act on assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with an armed conflict on the territory of this country was prepared in connection with President Karol Nawrocki's veto of the amendment to the Act on assistance to citizens of Ukraine at the end of August. After being submitted to the Sejm, the project was submitted for public consultations. In the meantime, the parliament adopted and the president signed another law prepared by the government on assistance to Ukrainian citizens, tightening the system of receiving family benefits by foreigners.

The presidential project, in addition to extending the legality of stay of Ukrainian citizens in Poland, duplicates most of the provisions regarding the termination of some aid activities that were included in the government act.

The president also proposed issues that were not included in the government act. The first concerns changes to the Penal Code and provided for an increase in the penalty for illegally crossing the Polish border to five years of imprisonment and an increase in the penalty range for organizing illegal border crossing – from 2 to 12 years of imprisonment.

Another change proposed by the president, which was not included in the government act, was the introduction of a penalty for promoting Banderism and OUN-UPA activities on the same principles as for promoting Nazism, communism or fascism.

According to the presidential draft of the amendment, a person who “publicly propagates Nazi, communist, fascist ideology, the ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Bandera's faction, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or an ideology calling for the use of violence in order to influence political or social life” would be subject to imprisonment of up to three years.

Moreover, according to the provisions of the project, the Institute of National Remembrance was to be responsible for recording, collecting, storing, developing, securing, making available and publishing documents concerning crimes committed against persons of Polish nationality or Polish citizens of other nationalities in the period from November 8, 1917 to July 31, 1990, of crimes committed by members and collaborators of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of Bandera's faction and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and other Ukrainian formations collaborating with the German Third Reich.

The third change proposed by the president, which was also not included in the government act, was a change in the Act on Polish citizenship. According to it, the minimum period of uninterrupted stay in Poland required to recognize a foreigner as a Polish citizen was to be extended from 3 to 10 years. (PAP)

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