Poland wants to resume talks with Czechia over 'territorial debt' - Media

According to the outlet, after the parliamentary elections in Czechia, Poland allegedly wants to resume dialogue regarding the so-called "territorial debt."

This concerns 368 hectares of land that, under agreements from the 1950s, remained on the Czech side of the border. These are lands in the area of the Biała Woda community and the village of Bodzanów in the Głuchołazy municipality.

These territories were transferred to then-Czechoslovakia in 1958. At that time, Poland conceded 1,205 hectares to its neighbors in exchange for 837 hectares.

Poland has not returned the remaining 368 hectares to this day. In 2015, the Czech government approved a list of land plots that were to be handed over to Poland, and the Polish authorities submitted a draft agreement regarding the border.

However, the matter reached an impasse because the Czech side proposed transferring these lands to the Czech Church.

During the tenure of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in 2021, the border issue with Czechia had also been raised.

The then-Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, whose party is likely to win again in this year’s elections, did not take a clear position, so negotiations were limited to intergovernmental consultations.

Unnamed sources from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that Warsaw expects to resume consultations at the expert level. The goal will be to clarify the positions of both sides on how the "territorial debt" issue can be resolved.

Warsaw also wants to obtain information from the Czech side about the reasons for the suspension of negotiations in 2015.

It is noted that in the pre-election period, they decided not to address this issue to prevent it from becoming a topic in the election campaign.