Declaring Insolvency

Hope for the Future

The new Customer Insolvency Act is coming into force. This new law allows people to declare bankruptcy when the indebted person is not able to pay debts owing to circumstances that are beyond his or her control. Konrad Gruner from the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) explains that in order to make use of the new regulations one has to submit an application to court which determines a five-year plan for the repayment of the debt. In order to do so the possessions of the debtor will be sold. If the consumer has a flat, it will be sold and then the court will assign a part of the money received from the sale to the debtor enabling him or her to rent a flat for 12 months. The rest of the money will go to the creditors.

The Act is subject to numerous restrictions that indicate who will be able to benefit from the right to consumer insolvency. More precisely, only people who became insolvent due to circumstances beyond their control will be able to exercise this right. Among the limitations put on the debtor during the five-year plan are, for example, inability to take out a loan, purchase anything in instalments or use a credit card. Moreover, the person who declared insolvency is obliged to submit annual reports concerning the repayment of the debt. The repayment plan may be changed if the financial situation of the debtor improves. This refers to a situation when, for instance, the debtor inherits something. However, the amount of the repaid instalment will not change if the financial situation of the debtor improves due to his or her work, i.e. in case of a pay rise. A person can make use of the Customer Insolvency Act once every ten years.
Wirtualna Polska

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PZPN on Leo

Sad Leo

Members of the Polish Football Association (PZPN) have been quarrelling about Leo Beenhakker for a long time now. They are divided into two groups. The first group is demanding the sacking of Beenhakker immediately, while the second one does not want to make any radical decisions. It is highly probable that the PZPN board will discuss the Beenhakker case during today’s meeting if one of the members proposes the subject. The PZPN initially wanted to ask Beenhakker to participate in the meeting but they decided not to invite him as it might have a negative effect on the Polish football team during the match against San Marino. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the PZPN will make an official decision giving Grzegorz Lato, the chairman of the PZPN, the right to dismiss Leo Beenhakker.
Dziennik

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Sikorski Angry with President

Not a Happy Chappy

“I am deeply shocked with the President’s declaration that he will attend the EU-USA summit. We agreed that it is the PM only who is going there,” says the Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The summit will take place in Prague in several days’ time, but it is now almost certain that it will be Lech Kaczyński, the President, who will meet the US President Barack Obama. It seems that the agreement was as follows: the President attends the NATO summit, the PM attends the EU-USA summit. In the latter’s agenda, a meeting between Mr Tusk and Mr Obama was planned in order to discuss the fate of the missile defence system to be installed in Poland. It is said that perhaps Mr Kaczyński felt he should talk to Mr Obama because it will be the first meeting of the two administrations. The hosts of the summit are somewhat confused. “At the meeting with Mr Obama, each member state is represented by one person: either the president or the PM. Poland is an exception because both will come,” says Jirzi Potużnik, the Czech PM spokesperson. Why does Mr Kaczyński want to accompany Mr Tusk in Prague? One of the President’s aides claims that “every EU summit is important to him” and notes that the talks in Prague will cover not only the worldwide financial crisis, but also security issues. What troubles the PM is whether such disagreements will be the case for all EU summits in the future. Therefore, he has officially asked the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) to ultimately decide who is responsible for forming delegations for EU summits. The session of the TK has been suspended since last Friday, so all Poles need to be patient in waiting for the solution to the PM-President disagreement.
Dziennik

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Post Office Raises Prices

Price Hikes

The Polish Post Office (Poczta Polska) is increasing the price of sending letters and parcels. From now on, we will have to pay from PLN 1 to PLN 3 more for a parcel, whereas, the price of a normal letter and postcard will increase by PLN 0.10. The company explains that it has to push up prices in order to invest in new sorting offices and, as a result, this will speed up the delivery of parcels.

“The price increases of these services are caused not only by higher costs of providing the services themselves, but also by the fact that we have improved the punctuality of delivering parcels and letters. However, this has involved investing more money in, among other things, building new sorting offices which we will not furnish with very expensive equipment used to sort parcels,” says Michał Dziewulski from the press office of the Polish Post Office. We will now pay PLN 1.55 for sending a normal letter and postcard, which does not weigh more than 50g, while hitherto they cost PLN 1.45. Furthermore, we will also have to pay more for a postal order which will go up by PLN 0.20, that is from PLN 5 plus 1% of the price of the postal order to PLN 5.20 plus 1% of the price of the postal order. The price of sending packages will also increase, the heavier the package, the more we will pay. As a consolation, the post office will send us an e-mail or sms when there is a parcel addressed to us.
Dziennik

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Three Laps to Happiness

Not a Winner

“We were sure that Robert would win the race,” according to BMW Sauber chief Mario Theissen when the Polish driver was in the team’s garage recovering from hitting a wall. “In the next races we will be fighting for victory,” he added in confident voice. In Melbourne, thanks to the better racing tactics used by BMW Sauber, Kubica was driving increasingly faster with every lap. In the crucial phase of the race the team engineers changed his tyres. His rivals were driving on softer tyres, worn out by the race. The Polish driver managed to catch up with Vettel who was, at that time, second in the race. When Kubica tried to overtake Vettel there was an accident. The judges punished the German driver who apologised to Robert. It is just the beginning of the fight for the championship title.  On Thursday already drivers will arrive at the Sepang track. Kubica is already in Malaysia and on Sunday the second race of the season will take place. Last year, only Kimi Raikkonen was better than Kubica in Sepang. This track is perfect for using KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), the new technology which helps drivers reach top speeds.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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Etiuda Boarded Up

Etuida No More

Rows and rows of passengers and hair-raising scenes in the check-in queues could all be seen just before the shutdown of the Etiuda terminal. However, the quarrelling was a part of Saturday’s happening organised by the Okęcie authorities in order to say goodbye to Etiuda, where low-cost carriers operated. The heroes of the stage were two passengers who argued about suitcases. They looked like typical Polish travellers from the 1980s wearing tight jackets, with worn-out suitcases, in which they had egg paste sandwiches and flasks of tea. They were giving their food to other passengers waiting in the long queue, i.e. Warsaw citizens, who came to say goodbye to the terminal. Apparently, the scene symbolised a typical communist-style check-in, with which the Okęcie authorities want to finish.

Later they showed a compilation of film fragments featuring the Etiuda building and Chopin Airport. It did not lack famous scenes from the Polish comedy “Miś” [“Teddy Bear”]. Just before 9 p.m., Michal Marzec, General Director of Polish Airports State Enterprise, nailed a “The End” sign to the door and the “Closed” neon light bulb was switched on. “I will not mourn for Etiuda,” claims Marzec. The decision about closing the cramped terminal was made in autumn. About two hours before the happening the last passengers flew from Etiuda to Italy with WizzAir airlines. “I am deeply moved that I am using this terminal just before its shutdown. I used it a few times. But maybe it is good that they are closing  it down,” said Lidia Brandt, who went skiing with her friend Katarzyna Winiarska. At the end they took a commemorative photo in front of the building. Five low-cost airlines that had been dispatched from the crowded Etiuda have been using Terminal 1 since Sunday. The fee is PLN 30 higher than at Etiuda, although it depends on the carrier whether they raise ticket prices or not. Etiuda had served low-cost airlines since 2004. Earlier, between 1979-92, only those passengers who arrived at Warsaw were checked in at Etiuda.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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Fat Boruc

Artur Horror Show

It is not Boruc’s private life but his weight that is his biggest problem. The Polish goalkeeper is putting on weight dramatically. “Boruc is a fatso. He looks as if he was pregnant,” said Jan Tomaszewski, a former Poland goalkeeper. It is no surprising that as Boruc gains weight he has started to make increasingly more mistakes during football matches both for the national team and Celtic. Everybody knows that Boruc weighs too much and that it has a bad effect on his game. Terry Gennoe, former Celtic goalkeeping coach, pointed out the fact that Boruc has a weight problem a few weeks ago. “I heard that Boruc is overweight which must surely affect his game. In order to feel confident and react quickly you have to be in good form,” said Terry in an interview for The Sun. The question is when will Boruc start to diet?
Dziennik

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Etiuda Disappears

End At Last

The last passengers left for Bergamo at 6.15 pm. Two hours later, Etiuda Terminal was no more. The farewell party had the atmosphere of the late ’70s and early ’80s – the time of  Etiuda’s greatness. The party included a group of passengers, the airport authorities and staff. They were all given plastic cups containing tea laced with rum. Later, guests were shown a sketch in which two passengers, carrying large suitcases, were pushing their way to check-in through a crowd. Jokingly, the airport staff was presented as mean and unprofessional. Finally, Michal Marzec, president of Polish Airports’ State Enterprise brought the ordeal to a close by nailing a “THE END” sign to the door. In conclusion, the guests were shown a compilation of Polish films, such as “Miś”, “07 Zgłoś się” showing Etiuda Terminal in the foreground.

Initially, because of the Finnish company that designed the building, the terminal was widely known as “Hala Fińska” despite the fact that in Finland such buildings were used for market halls. But for the Poles, then, it was rather impressive. What is more, it was equipped with air-conditioning, an amazing automatic door and glass walls. Up until 1992 it was used for passengers arriving in Warsaw. Subsequently, it was changed into a supermarket and warehouse. In 2004, new life was breathed into Hala Fińska mainly thanks to cheap airlines entering the market. As a result of the significant growth of passengers, the airport authorities were forced to enlarge the airport. Thus, they directed the passengers of cheap airlines to Hala Fińska, later renamed Etiuda Terminal. However, the building was too small for both arrivals and departures. Consequently, arrivals were later transferred to Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport. Now, all cheap airlines have been moved to Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport and so the price of tickets will certainly increase due to the higher costs of servicing passengers.
Dziennik

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Doctors Condemned

A 16 year-old girl died during a dental procedure. The sentence in this case has finally been pronounced after seven years. The girl never woke up after the anaesthetic given to her by anaesthetist Michal O. The tragedy happened in October 2002 in Wrocław. The girl asked for an anaesthetic because she was afraid of the pain. The injection given to her by doctor Michał O. turned out to be fatal. The court paid attention to the fact that the anaesthetist did not have the authority for such a procedures. He did not pay attention to the correct proportions of the given medicine. The doctor has been sentenced to two years imprisonment. The dentist, Anna K. has been sentenced to one year imprisonment as she allowed the procedure to be undertaken incorrectly. The sentence is not legally binding. The court suspended both judgments.
Dziennik

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Offer We Can’t Refuse?

Gazprom Problems

Rzeczpospolita has learned that Gazprom has some new proposals for the dominant gas provider in Poland, Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG). They were brought up while the companies were renegotiating the so called Yamal contract, which was signed in 1993, when the Yamal pipeline, transporting gas through Poland to Western Europe, was being built. According to proposed changes, Poland will be buying 10 billion cubic meters of gas a year instead of  the current 7.5 billion (with recent prices it would require an additional $750 million) until the year 2014 and within the following 8 years annual imports will increase even more. If Poland accepts the offer it will mean that it is giving up plans to build a gas port and gas pipeline connecting it with Denmark, the two projects which were supposed to free Poland from being entirely dependant on Russian supplies. “This situation is of no surprise, apparently the Russian side once again wants to seize the opportunity and take advantage of the fact that as a gas importer the Polish side is now in a difficult situation,” said PGNiG former CEO Andrzej Lipko.

The company does not want to give any comments on our information, but the final decisions have been made at the governmental level. The Russians have decided to combine negotiations between PGNiG and Gazprom concerning this year’s additional gas supplies with renegotiations of the Yamal contract. The gas conflict between Ukraine and Russia in some way caused the current difficult situation, as it eliminated RusUkrEnergo (RUE), a broker supplying 18% of Polish gas demands, from the market. RUE was supposed to sell Poland 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas and unfortunately the only company that can now take its place is GazpromExport. PGNiG has already agreed on the terms of the additional supplies contract, but unfortunately it does not make any difference, as it will not be signed until the final renegotiations of the Yamal contract are over. The Russians have the advantage because it is the Polish side that is pressed for time and has no other way of importing gas this year. However, Poland will need additional Russian gas for only 5 or 6 more years, until diversification plans (a gas port in Świnoujście and the gas pipeline to Denmark) are realised. This is why the Polish side has no reason to agree on an increase of supplies specified in the Yamal contract, binding until the year 2022. It is unknown what strategy the Polish side will adopt in negotiations at the governmental level.
Rzeczpospolita

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