INTERNATIONAL TRACING SERVICE: POLAND SUPPORTS

UNCLAS WARSAW 000819 SIPDIS EUR/NCE FOR VERNELLE TRIM AND EUR/OHI JOHN BECKER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC KNAR PREL PL MFA SUBJECT: INTERNATIONAL TRACING SERVICE: POLAND SUPPORTS OPENING BAD AROLSEN ARCHIVES REF: STATE 48290 ¶1. As requested reftel, Poloff delivered demarche request to the Polish MFA on April 27. Poland's representative to the upcoming meetings in Luxembourg will be the MFA's Witold Spirydowicz. Given the movement of the Germans on the issue of access to the Bad Arolsen archives, we proceeded with the meeting with Spirydowicz, to learn if the Poles had changed their position as well. ¶2. Spirydowicz claimed that Poland will now support the U.S.-German compromise to provide historians access to the Bad Arolsen archives. He told Poloff that Poland will support the proposed amendments to the two governing treaties, and anticipated no difficulties at the upcoming Luxembourg meetings. Spirydowicz said that now that the United States and Israel had agreed to a minimal standard of protecting private data (albeit lower than the European Union's standard),Poland would agree with Germany that access to the records should be granted broadly. As to timing he said that it may take several months to draw up the rules governing such access, but they could be in place by the end of the year. Spirydowicz said the only possible glitch to the new arrangement would be whether any of the responsible states would require parliamentary approval for the changes to the treaties governing Bad Arolsen. With respect to Poland, he did not anticipate any problem with the Sejm. ¶3. With respect to reftel's separate language about Spirydowicz's lack of cooperation in the past, post will double track the demarche with other senior MFA officials. HILLAS