flash news
On 19 February 2024, the Supreme Court received a legal question (case III CZP 11/24) as to whether a Ukrainian citizen with permanent residence in Poland can inherit under Ukrainian law.
The case originally involved a CJEU judgment (C-21/22) which ruled that EU law does not prohibit the exclusion, on the basis of a bilateral agreement between states, of the application of the law of the country of origin of a foreigner from a non-EU state.
On 21 February the Journal of Laws published an Act amending the Act on Assistance to Citizens of Ukraine in Connection with the Armed Conflict on the Territory of Ukraine, dated 9 February 2024. Under the new legislation, the temporary protections afforded to Ukrainian citizens in Poland and associated privileges have been extended until 30 June 2024.
During today's session in the Sejm, after the third reading, the latest draft bill on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict in that country was adopted. According to the adopted content of the law, the period of stay recognized in Poland as legal and related privileges for citizens of Ukraine are to be in force until 30 June 2024. This is a marked change from recent announcements of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration about which we wrote several days ago. This is because as recently as last week, representatives of the Ministry announced plans to extend existing provisions under the Special Act until September 2024.
Latest information from the Central Statistical Office (GUS), released in January 2024, shows that on 31 July 2023, some 996,500 foreigners were working in Poland. This is around 6.5 per cent of the total employed workforce.
The largest number of foreign employees, namely 690,800, are Ukrainian. Nevertheless, a certain downward trend has been observed in the share of Ukrainians in all foreigners. Compared to January 2022, the decrease is 4 percentage points.
A document called “Schedule of work on drawing up a comprehensive, responsible and secure migration strategy for Poland for 2025-2030” has been published by the Ministry of the Interior and Administration.
The schedule anticipates that a final draft of the strategy is to be ready by the end of this year. The next step, planned for January-June 2025, is to involve new draft bills to regulate immigration, including a new bill on foreigners.
According to the bill released on Friday, changes to the law on assisting citizens of Ukraine in light of the armed conflict in their country propose extending special provisions and rights for Ukrainian citizens until June 30, 2024, for the time being. This extension covers aspects such as prolonging the legality of stay of Ukrainian citizens in Poland, the right to work based on notifications, and the right to engage in business activities. Further period (until at least 4 March 2024) will be the subject of separate legislative works.