The problematic aspects of the PLN 1,000 grants to the students of Polish minority schools in Lithuania
In the beginning of October the Polish MFA announced its plans to support the families of the first-grade students of the Polish minority schools in Lithuania by providing them with a single grant worth PLN 1,000. First payments were reportedly delivered on October 6. The concern of the Lithuanian Government is, however, that this plan has not been negotiated with the Lithuanian authorities and may therefore negatively affect the recipients.
First, the Lithuanian Law on Charity and Support defines the criteria, based on which income is treated as charity or as support. Only public entities are entitled to receive support (Article 7), while charity can be provided to a strictly regulated list of individuals: handicapped persons, orphans, unemployed etc. (Article 6). Also, only organizations registered as charity providers can provide charity (Article 5).The payments by the Polish MFA are provided through the Polish Consulate in Vilnius which is not a registered charity organization. Also, in most cases the families of the first-grade students of the Lithuanian Polish schools are not charity recipients under the Lithuanian law. Thus, the payments by the Polish MFA can only be treated as a personal income which is subject to taxation. Since most of the families may not be aware of this fact, they can face difficulties in the future.
Second, the additional income coming from abroad would increase the general income level of the socially vulnerable families in Eastern Lithuania, which would exclude these families from other social allowances provided by the Lithuanian state. According to the law, only the families whose per capita income does not exceed LTL 525 (PLN660) per month are eligible to receive social allowances, such as free meals and free textbooks at school. Only the families whose per capita income does not exceed LTL300 (PLN380) per month are eligible for compensations for heating expenses etc. Thus, the payments by the Polish MFA may do more harm than good for the families concerned. More information (in Russian) is available at: http://ru.delfi.lt/news/live/dengi-posolstva-polshi-mogut-lishit-semi-socialnoj-pomoschi.d?id=50463116.
Third, the process as it is organized now runs counter to the Law on Private Data Security. The principles (directors) of the Polish schools provide the data about the students without their written consent, as required by law. Also, for under-aged students the agreement of their parents is obligatory. By violating the law the principles (directors) of the schools put themselves at the risk of state prosecution. The fact that the personal data is being transferred to an institution of a foreign country makes this scheme even more unacceptable.
All these issues could possibly be regulated by a separate Lithuanian-Polish agreement, provided that there were a will to discuss this issue. One can only regret that the Polish MFA has not used this chance to discuss the technical side of the support mechanism with Lithuanian Government and has ventured for the sake of short-term political benefits.
