Travel / I'm Spanish, next week I'm going to be at Warsaw and Kielce, help! [21]

Kantor. For whatever reason, they have the best exchange rates, even though they employ humans. 2nd best option are ATMs from banks, like from PKO. I would avoid independent ATMs like from Euronet. They are a tourist trap.

Language / Why 'walczy' and not 'walczą' - Polish language question [20]

piggypacking on this numerals thread: is there ever a way to correctly use the form "cztery drzwi"? Since drzwi is plural only, it should be "czworo drzwi", but the usage of "cztery drzwi" by far trumps the supposedly correct one. Am I missing something?

(interestingly, with 3, troje drzwi is used a bit more often then trzy drzwi).

Law / Maintenance Claim From Mother - Poland [19]


the same law exists in Germany and Austria. Most often it is not the parent directly who sues the children but the social security agency who has to front the bill.

The son- or daughter-in-law is not liable for payment though, but since both incomes are thrown together it could be that the child has to pay more than she actually earns and his/her married partner has to cough up the difference.

News / Israel opposing potential new Polish law to criminalise term 'Polish death camps' [1538]

the text of the new art. 55a Ustawa o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej the Senate voted is here on page 5:
senat.gov.pl/download/gfx/senat/pl/senatekspertyzy/4547/plik/722m.pdf

naród polski and państwo polski seems clear to me that this does not concern individual targets. You can still claim that the nation or the government did perpetrate these crimes, you just have to be an artist or a scientist doing your profession (art. 55a/3).

News / EU triggers Article 7, could strip Poland of voting rights [91]

for what it's worth, I learned a bunch of new words today:

darmozjad parasite
komisarz ludowy some kind of PRL officer
moczymorda alcoholic, człowiek nadużywający alkoholu (although I think that would be better attributabe to Jean-Claude "resident creep" Juncker)
folksdojczka Volksdeutscher, Volksdeutsche (not sure if that refers to male or female)
kołchoźnik member of a collective farm

Only komuch I already knew. And these are probably the more nicer attributes for that Timmerthingy guy, since they were printed in the comments section of various news articles. A guy that btw freakishly reminds me of Erich Mielke. Both claimed that they always only wanted "the best" for the people.

Law / Question on international law - a person from Poland caught and extorted in the USA [2]

There is an extradition treaty between Poland and the US: internationalextraditionblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/poland.pdf

If the action committed is punishable only in one of the two states or has a maximum sentence of lower than one year imprisonment, extradition is not possible. So if the Polish national is residing in Poland and did something that is a crime in the US but not in Poland, he will not be extradited. And he will not be tried in Poland either. He has to be careful though to never leave Poland before checking the relevant extradition treaties of the states he is going to travel to.

If the action is punishable in both countries, usually the perpetrator is tried in his home state (if he is physically located there) und the rule of local laws since nations rarely extradite their own citizens. These provisions are normally used for extraditing foreign nationals.

If the person on the other side is physically present in the state where the alleged offence took place, the question of extradition is moot. A polish national who committed a crime in the US will be tried there under their laws regardless of Polish law and there is no way that Poland could get him back home under any provisions. That would be only possible via the diplomatic route and that is reserved for very high profile cases in extraordinary circumstances.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]


sure. The law is modeled after those in place in some other parts of Europe. First of all, it is only applicable to retail - bars and restaurants are not retail stores. Then there are numerous exceptions - shops at railway stations, airports, gas stations - all may be open 24h/d.

And somebody seems to have heard your concerns and specifically introduced exemptions for "piekarnie, cukiernie i lodziarnie" even when there are employees present which led to some speculation that even big supermarkets may open their doors on sundays if they have a bakery inside.

Other exceptions: "apteki, kwiaciarnie, sklepy z pamiątkami i dewocjonaliami, kioski, stoiska przy cmentarzach". The courts will have a field day in deciding which shops fall into which of that numerous exempt categories.

News / Eggs in Poland paying for the 550+ [8]

The government will only have minuscule additional profits from higher egg prices since VAT for eggs is just 5% and producers are private companies. And there is no central price fixing in the first place. Which would be impossible to pull off inside the common EU market anyway.

What is actually happening is that prices across Europe are rising fast- here a chart from Germany:
welt.de/wirtschaft/article170168740/Europa-gehen-die-Eier-aus.html#cs-DWO-WI-Eierpreis-pd-jpg.jpg
It is said that some 6 million chicken were killed in 2017 and that now some 20 million are missing from the market.

With butter, it seems to be a combination of a change in local consumer habits (increased demand), a drop in production in the EU, and an increased demand for Milk overseas, in particular in China:

money.cnn.com/2017/08/09/news/economy/butter-shortage-europe/index.html
While eggs cannot be shipped that easily over long distances, dried milk powder can.

The article also talks about unintended consequences from the 2014 russian sanctions. The immediate effect was an oversupply of dairy products in Europa, which was followed by a voluntary cut in production capacities by a lot of farms going of of business in 2015 and 2016. For this reason, butter production in 2017 is down some 5% in the EU.

News / Goodbye Sunday Shopping in Poland - Hello Electoral Reform [246]

Every journalists and his grandmother should be on the lookout about CVC Capital Partners having made any contributions to the PiS party this year. CVC owns the Żabka brand and its franchising network. Żabki will continue to be exempt from the sunday trading ban if they are owner operated (which it seems that almost all of them are because they all are open on days where trading is already banned today, e.g. on 11.11.).

In Hungary, they tried the same thing. Ban trading on sunday but leave the door open for owner operated stores. It is said that the owners of the CBA franchise chain, that operates like Żabka, paid a good amount into the coffers of Orbán's Fidesz to convince him. It did not work out well though because due to public pressure, the ban was cancelled in 2016. It still might work in Poland because according to recent CBOS polling, 58% favor the sunday closure.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


the resolution has the #B8-0595 "The situation of the rule of law and democracy in Poland".
the summary results: europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML%2bPV%2b20171115%2bRES-VOT%2bDOC%2bPDF%2bV0%2f%2fEN&language=EN starts from the bottom of page 12

the roll call tally: europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML%2bPV%2b20171115%2bRES-RCV%2bDOC%2bPDF%2bV0%2f%2fEN&language=EN the votes on the final text are on pp84/85

there have been various amendments proposed and every single of them is voted on, hence the huge number of voting rounds.

kudos from my side go to the MEPs
Ryszard Legutko, Anna Fotyga, Tomasz Poręba, Ryszard Czarnecki, Karol Karski, Edward Czesak, Beata Gosiewska, Czesław Hoc, Marek Jurek, Sławomir Kłosowski, Zdzisław Krasnodębski, Urszula Krupa, Zbigniew Kuźmiuk, Stanisław Ożóg, Bolesław Piecha, Jadwiga Wiśniewska, and Kosma Złotowski for proposing this resolution: europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+MOTION+B8-2017-0594+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

"Points out, therefore, that new legislative proposals, such as the proposals for laws on the National Judicial Council and Supreme Court, should not be subject to interference from the EU institutions, as their objectives will be best achieved by the Polish authorities on the basis of the subsidiarity principle"

Work / Cost of living in Gdańsk, average salary for experienced software engineer in Poland [64]


you can work this out here: calculla.com/salary_in_poland with 12k before taxes, you will get a tad more than 8k net.


no


impossible to answer. In general, Poland is not a country to move to for the savings potential of one's salary. You earn a comparably (to Western Europe) low salary, but besides services and housing, for imported stuff you pay the same price as everywhere else.

News / President Duda rules out homo marriage in Poland as banned by the constitution [172]

[moved from]

The actual wording of law is mostly only important in criminal law, but in constitutional law, the law is what (in the case of Poland) the TK says it is. The TK weighed in on this matter in 2011 and opined that a law legalizing same-sex partnerships with (almost) the same benefits as a marriage would co stanowi naruszenie obowiązku szczególnej ochrony małżeństwa, jako trwałego związku heteroseksualnego, meaning that the court attributes a marriage to be a heterosexual union.

ordoiuris.pl/rodzina-i-malzenstwo/opinia-sadu-najwyzszego-w-sprawie-projektu-ustawy-o-zwiazkach-partnerskich

Marriage being defined as a union between a man and a woman is also the prevailing interpretation from legal scholars, e.g. : określa małżeństwo jako związek kobiety i mężczyzny., i.e. it requires it without ambiguity.

Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej wypracowania24.pl/wos/2904/konstytucja-rp-art-18

Another legal scholar comes to the same conclusion by analyzing the supporting material that was released before the 1997 referendum. The text was chosen with the: intencja wykluczenia prawnej instytucjonalizacji związków osób tej samej płci, so with specific intention to exclude same-sex couples from this institution.

ordoiuris.pl/rodzina-i-malzenstwo/malzenstwo-jako-zwiazek-kobiety-i-mezczyzny-o-niektorych-implikacjach-art-18

To summarize: it is not only defined that a marriage is a union between a man and a woman, it is even - in the opinion of the supreme court - a violation of the constitution to create a law granting the privileges of marriage to other form of cohabitation, even when using another name.

Language / What's the difference between może and chyba? [4]


this. You might expect this meaning since może is (also) the 3rd p. sg. of móc - which both means potrafić, mieć możliwość - someone is able to do something - and mieć pozwolenie - someone is allowed to do something - but also wyrażenie przypuszczenia - expression of presumption - and the latter meaning overlaps with chyba. Examples from Swan in increasing degree of certainy:

Może Janek będzie chciał ci towarzyszyć. Maybe Janek will want to accompany you.
Chyba Janek będzie chciał ci towarzyszyć. I suppose Janek will want to accompany you.
Prawdopodobnie Janek będzie chciał ci towarzyszyć. Probably Janek will want to accompany you.

chyba has additionally a meaning of unless:
Przyjadę, chyba żebym zachorował. I'll come unless I get sick. This cannot be expressed with może. On the other side, może can be used for expressions that carry no doubt at all:

Może pływać w głębokiej wodzie, a bateria wytrzymuje 10 dni. It can swim in deep water and the battery lasts 10 days.
innpoland.pl/137317,moze-plywac-w-glebokiej-wodzie-a-bateria-wytrzymuje-10-dni-polska-firma-wypuscila-supertelefon-za-250-zl
Here, może has a totally distinct meaning from chyba, because there is no uncertainy.

(the usual cavaet applies: non-native speaker here too, take everything with a grain of salt).

News / US Investor seeks 700 million dollars in damages from Poland [45]


yes, the FT is reporting the same figure today: ft.com/content/a26dda50-af3b-11e7-aab9-abaa44b1e130

but also in this piece, it says: "Michael Polsky, the founder and chief executive of Invenergy, said the dispute had now been raging "for three-plus years".", meaning that they "have exhausted [their] commercial and legal remedies in the country" and are now sueing the current goverment for actions that were undertaken during the previous government. Since the termination of the SPVs had something to do with falling energy prices, 2014 sounds like a reasonable timeframe because mid of 2014 we had the big oil price drop and with it came also a downturn in wholesale electricity prices.


for this reason, the BITs usually open the door for independent courts, also in the PL-USA BIT:


investmentpolicyhub.unctad.org/Download/TreatyFile/5339

In general, nothing can be inferred just from the plaintiff complaining. It is currently just that: a "media offensive". It is up to the courts to decide whether the case has any merits.

News / US Investor seeks 700 million dollars in damages from Poland [45]



wasn't PO in power back then?

Study / I'm thinking to study in the Wrocław University of Science and Technology [55]


by chance, hence the name "lottery". The minimum requirement is a high school education, that's all.


you also need living expenses covered


I get it, you don't like your government. I can relate to that, I don't like mine either. While mine isn't throwing people in jail by the thousands, I can still easily lose my job, get a fine, or even a short jail sentence for "speaking my mind". I also want to move away. But there is no rush. They will not come for me tomorrow if I shut up. So I will do that. I keep a low profile, continue to collect a good pay check and use the time wisely to acquire the skills necessary to move in a couple of years.

I would suggest to you to do the same. A B.Sc. in Computer Science is basically the same everywhere. I am very sure you will learn programming at e.g. Atatürk University similarly well as at any other uni. And even if it is not up to par, you can always put in extra work on your own. But you can get that diploma for almost free at home at a state run uni. So I would save my money, maybe earn some extra, and wait to move until I have the skills to start to work - anywhere in the world.


same as in some US schools. But the good thing about computer science is that they cannot meddle with the technology, because here, there is no wiggle room: either your code is doing what it's supposed to do - or not.

Work / Poland - Expat Careers [26]

I would try monsterpolska.pl/en?intcid=swoop_TopNav_English and linkedin.com/jobs

btw., also with my employer, we use "expat" for a specific purpose: employees from foreign subsidaries working here for up to 5 years. Expats continue to be paid by their home company + some extra allowance. All others are "local hires" - regardless of nationality.

Language / Instrumental case "To Jest " and "Jest" Need help with correcting my examples in Polish [17]


thanks, it's really the same as in German


is there ever a correct way to say brakuję (mi)? I see that a lot - if you enter that phrase in Google, you will get >50.000 hits, but according to 301 Polish Words, this form does not even exist.

Travel / Białowieża National Park in Poland [461]


are they talking about leśniczy (forester) or a robotnik leśny (forest worker)? foresters earn on average 6,600zł: wynagrodzenia.pl/moja-placa/ile-zarabia-lesniczy, but forest workers only 1,500zł:

moja-pensja.pl/zarobki/666,ile-zarabia-Robotnik-le%C5%9Bny

the forester should be the guy responsible for an area of forest, so for him to earn more is comprehensible. The average robotnik earning 6,6k or even 7,7k - very probably not. Others I found:


one article from this year claims the average Firefighter salary to be 4125 zł brutto:
superbiz.se.pl/wiadomosci-biz/zobacz-ile-zarabiaja-strazacy-infografika_949262.html


the officer on the street seems to take home only 2,500zł:
superbiz.se.pl/wiadomosci-biz/zarobki-policjantow-w-polsce-ile-dostaje-drogowka-i-komendant_939496.html


a bit lower: wynagrodzenia.pl/moja-placa/ile-zarabia-sanitariusz

with all the public sector wages, tiny base salaries can be deceiving though since usually a lot of dodatki - supplements - are added. But you will not - like anywhere else - get rich by working in a public sector job.

Language / Instrumental case "To Jest " and "Jest" Need help with correcting my examples in Polish [17]


yet if być is preceded by a demonstrative pronoun (ten,to,ta,ci,te), the instrumental is not used, even when put together with an adjective:


wprost.pl/10038166
I still fail at this regularly. btw., why to and not ta?

about the negation requiring the genitive: this seems only to modify the accusative:
oglądam telewizię / nie oglądam telewizji
ma mleko / nie ma mleka
będzie czas / nie będzie czasu
znamy adres / nie znamy adresu

być requires either the nominative or the instrumental, for this reason a negated być is not modified with the genitive.

UK, Ireland / 31 year old Polish man causes accident under influence of alcohol and kills 8 [198]


dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4829456/Polish-born-drink-driver-31-court-M1-smash.html#ixzz4rLjwhADQ

Pictures from the crash site:
front: thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/nintchdbpict0003481307282.jpg?strip=all&w=960
above: worcesternews.co.uk/resources/images/6758773/?type=responsive-gallery-fullscreen

So the polish driver actually was not "driving a truck that crashed into an innocent family" but parking his truck in lane 1 of the highway. It is still a criminal offence, esp. in combination with being drunk, but for me his personal guilt is much lower compared to would he actually been driving and hitting somebody. It seems that he realized that he was too drunk to drive and parked his truck in - if the pictures indicate his actual position - the most safest spot on that highway.

It is on the other side rather questionable why the van was there in the first place, since there is an exit ramp right before the place of impact. But even if he were to stand in the slow lane, every motorist shall only drive as fast as for him it is possible to stop when he recognizes an obstacle on the road, even at 3am. Other drivers were obviously able to avoid hitting his truck, considering that he was already standing there for some 12 minutes and the M1 is a busy motorway even at 3am.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


which version of Art. 7 TEU have you been reading? The current law of the land can be found here:
eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:12012M007 and Art. 7 sec. 2-3 are as follows:


While the proposal needs to be made only by 1/3 of the Member States or (in the case of Poland) by the Commission, there is a need for unanimity in the Council to "determine the existence of a serious and persistent breach". Only if this unanimity is reached, paragraph 3 again works with the Lisbon qualified majority rules. But without the preceding unanimous vote, §3 cannot be invoked.

Although I wonder if they even would get a qualified majority.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


maybe in the coming years, but not so in 2016:


ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/2017-european-semester-country-report-poland-en.pdf

but let's say that the full EUR 86.1 billion will be distributed throughout the 2014-2020 timeframe, we are talking about EUR 12,3 billions per year or EUR 320 per polish citizien per year or EUR 27 per citizen per month.

and we are talking gross inflows here. The goverment spends PLN 18 billions (EUR 4 billions) in EU contributions in 2017: mf.gov.pl/documents/764034/5945940/20170630_state_budget_expenditure_V_2017.pdf

so there is only a maximum inflow of EUR 8 billions net targeted to specific projects and we are down to EUR 210 per citizen per year to EUR 17,5 per citizen per month.

And this is the maximum, which is never reached. One year before the end of the 2007-2013 program, only 61% of these funds were actually distributed and in the end, more than 10% was never paid at all: insideurope.eu/node/487

To further compare the numbers, let's look at FDI: com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY_Attractiveness_Survey_Poland_2017/$FILE/EY-Attractiveness-Survey-Poland-2017.pdf]
we had for every year since 2005 an annual investment from foreign entities of more than USD 1,000 billion in Poland and on average USD 830 billion in greenfield investments, meaning building facilities like offices and factories from scratch. Outflow of funds is on the other side comparatively low, some USD 50 billion.

Compared to FDI, EU funds are a drop in the ocean. And I have not even started to analyse how efficient that EU funds are put to work. Not everything is going into obviously useful projects like building roads, bridges, and railways, but there is plenty of stuff devised by EU bureaucrats that has at least questionable value.

Considering Brexit will diminish the source of funds together with lagging countries like Italy also not able or willing to pony up lots of money, starting from 2021, CEE countries will have to live with less EU funds anyway and I project that nobody will really notice.

News / Poland's post-election political scene [4080]


no. Judges on the German TK (BVerfG) are elected by parliament for a single 12-year term and they cannot be removed before their term ends. A judge only loses his job after a criminal conviction. In reality of course, the government chooses the judge and election by parliament is mostly a formality since the goverment's part(ies/y) has a majority.

This is the same process as in all other western countries. Appointment is by democratically elected officials, but removal is not possible.

That now in Poland it should be possible for the goverment to cancel the terms of already serving judges on the TK is an anomaly, but one could argue that it might be prudent to make a one-off restart in order to eliminate the remaining remnants of the PRL. A restart that should have been performed at least 25 years ago though.

News / 60% of Poles say Szydło's government should resign [238]

latest polls show PiS gaining ground in the last 3 months again:
oko.press/sondaz-oko-press-pis-najmocniejszy-wyborow-opozycja-najslabsza-sejm-prawicowo-narodowy
interestingly, the strongest party amongst the 18-24 old voters is K15. And: Wolność - Korwin-Mikke's party - polls at 14% amongst this young crowd.
For me it is an encouraging sign that both in the general electorate as well - and maybe even stronger - in the young generation, parties who work against mass immigration have a big majority.

News / Bankruptcies in Poland up by 15% [4]

the comparable figures for Germany and Austria are 10,300 and 2,574
creditreform.de/nc/aktuelles/news-list/details/news-detail/insolvenzen-in-deutschland-1-halbjahr-2017.html
ksv.at/insolvenzstatistiken

for the UK, I have only 1Q2017: 3,967:
gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/611370/Q1_2017_statistics_release_-_commentary.pdf

418 in Poland for half a year? With 1/2 and 5 times the size of Germany and Austria, a number around 5,000ish would be plausible. 418 is not possible, there is something wrong with that number.

Could it be that they are not counting the rejected petitions for grounds that the debtor's assets were insufficient for the payment of the expenses of liquidation? These are usually the bulk of petitions but not counting them (although no formal declaration of insolvency is issued) makes the number useless because a rise in this number could actually indicate an improving situation.

USA, Canada / Sending a phone from USA to Poland [6]

Most care should be put on the LTE bands the phone supports. There is quite a distinction between the frequencies used stateside vs. Poland: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands

LTE bands 1, 3, 7, and 20 are not at all covered by some (most) phones sold stateside because providers there are using different frequencies.

Even with the same model, there can be significant differences. The Samsung Galaxy S8 SM-G950P will not work in Poland, the Galaxy S8 SM-G9500 will work fine. Check the model you want to ship here: frequencycheck.com

News / Dodgy PRL-holdover judiciary finally reformed [420]

There is no thing as a totally independent judicial system because that would be undemocratic. In all western democracies, the members of the supreme courts are appointed by elected bodies. In the USA, this is the president in combination with the senate. In Germany, for the highest civil and criminal court, it is a commission composed of the 16 regional ministers of justice and 16 members of parliament and for the constitutional court, it is parliament itself who elects the judges. In the US, ever lower court judges are political appointees.

Of course what follows is that if one party dominates the legislative chambers over a long time, the judiciary will follow suit. It is up to the electorate to decide if another party should have the chance to reshape the judiciary.

News / Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian refugees. Why does the EU keep telling propaganda about Poland? [304]


I don't. Japan also had a vast colonial empireen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_colonial_empire where they ruled with an iron fist. They were humiliated to a greater extent than Germany in 1945 yet there is not a hint of any guilt in Japanese society. It is common understanding in Japan they their culture is unique and has to be preserved, they do let invader.. erm., asylum seekers only in minuscule amounts into the country (number of asylum grants in 2016: 28. no, that is not 28 thousand, that is twenty-eight: reuters.com/article/us-japan-asylum-idUSKBN15O0UV). The Japanese do something differently or are wired differently, I do not know.

On the other side, this autogenocidal cancer of opening all borders has even affected peoples who have already been victims of conquests themselves like the Poles or - most suprisingly for me - the Estonians, who themselves were driven close to extinction only one generation ago. Yet they also voted in the EU to receive muslim invad.., erm., "migrants". Just baffling.

News / Officials in Poland are hailing an upcoming visit by Donald Trump [720]


not necessarily, considering how inefficient Germany spends money on its military. In 2011, Germany media reportet that "German soldiers mostly don't know how to use their weapons." ( thedailybeast.com/german-soldiers-in-afghanistan-cant-shoot). Since then, it's only gotten worse. The latest failure was with a new transport plane, a lot of money was spent on, but it is not working: dw.com/en/german-air-force-investigates-latest-airbus-a400m-glitch/a-37464284

Currently, there are only 7,000 (!) Soldiers ready to fight (at least they can try). For every actual soldier, 50 personnel is employed in the bureaucracy. Compare this to France: there the ratio is 1:10.

They might well invest a couple of billions more but might end up as helpless as they are now.