Pursuant to Article 79 of the Constitution
of the Republic of Poland, the following Constitutional Complaint
was filed with the Constitutional Tribunal on 19 March 1998:
We, the undersigned, are of the opinion
that the ratification of the Concordat signed by the Government
of the Republic of Poland on 28 July 1993 violates our constitutional
rights and liberties. We are also convinced that both, the content
of this agreement and the procedure of its adoption are inconsistent
with the basic principles of the democratic state governed by
the rule of law.
Grounds for complaint:
To our knowledge, during the constitutional debate in the parliament it was stated that the Catholic Church to which some of the powers of the state authorities are to be transferred in the Concordat (including the right to participate in decisions concerning any changes in the financial relations between Church and State) is not an international organisation. Such opinion is based on some kind of vague and narrow idea of what is an international organisation and, respectively, restrictive interpretation of Article 90 of the Constitution. That is why we turn to the Constitutional tribunal with a formal application to issue a binding interpretation of this constitutional provision, which was intended to safeguard the sovereignty and autonomy of Polish state.
In particular we petition the Tribunal
for a legally binding interpretation whether it was intended by
the legislature to permit - without the consent of the two-thirds
majority of votes in both chambers of the Polish parliament -
the transfer of certain powers of the state authorities to institutions
or other parties which are independent from the Polish state and
are not international organisations or institutions (e.g. foreign
country). It is our opinion that the actual intention of the legislature
was quite the reverse: the intention was to exclude such possibility
altogether, allowing the transfer of some powers exclusively to
international organisations or institutions. If so, the law permitting
the ratification of the Concordat turns out to be inconsistent
with the Constitution regardless of whether the Church is considered
to be an international organisation or any other kind of organisation
or institution. Signed by: Hanna Ablewicz, Maciej Bartkowski, Jerzy Ciechanowicz, Bohdan Chwedeńczuk, Andrzej Dominiczak, Helena Eilstein, Jerzy Kossak, Adam Kotarbiński, Kazimierz Koniewski, Mateusz Kwaterko, Władysław Loranc, Krzysztof Lubczyński, Jerzy Ładyka, Lech M. Nijakowski, Leszek Nowak, Janusz Ostrowski, Zdisław Pi;, Tadeusz Prugar, Alred Rachalski, Zdisław Słowik, Barbara Stanosz, Maria Szyszkowska, Dionizy Tanalski. |