28th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (24-26 March 2015)

Debate on Local and regional democracy in Poland

Speaking notes - Jos Wienen, (Netherlands, EPP/CCE), rapporteur on local democracy

Dear Colleagues,

I must say that I was very glad to be appointed rapporteur on local democracy on Poland as this is a country I know and I wanted to learn more about local democracy there. Our delegation consisted of Ms Cynthia HUGHES, as regional rapporteur, Professor Angel MORENO, as consultant, and myself as local rapporteur.

 I would like to take this opportunity to thank State Secretary Stanislaw HUSKOWSKI from the  Ministry of Administration and Digitization  for his presence here today, and to pass our good wishes to his Deputy Minister who we had the pleasure to meet in Warsaw. 

• I will leave it to my colleague Ms HUGHES to talk about the regional aspect of our report and our recommendations. I will concentrate on what we found to be satisfactory from a Charter point of view and about the issues that we think need further effort on the part of the government.

• As regards the visit itself, we visited Poland between 20 and 23 May 2014. We met with the mayors of Gdansk and Opole Lubelskie and the Deputy Mayor of Lublin. At the regional level we met the heads of the Masovia and Lublin regional assemblies and their marshals.

• We had a joint meeting with the representatives of the six associations and unions that represent Polish local, county and regional levels. This meeting was followed immediately with a meeting of the Joint Committee of the Central Government and Local Governments which, as you will have seen from our report, is a laudable good practice example of a cooperation and negotiation body.

• We were very well received at the national level: We met the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Administration and Digitization and the Secretary of State from the Ministry of Finance dealing with Local Government budgets. We also visited the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development. We met members of Parliament from the committees on Local government and Public Finance.

• We had a very interesting meeting with the President of the Constitutional Court, Mr Kieres, who was himself a Congress member back in 2000 and had been rapporteur for Georgia and Ukraine monitoring visits.

• As usual, we met with the national Ombudsman. Our one big disappointment was not being able to meet the Mayor of Warsaw, or indeed anyone from the Warsaw municipality owing to previous unavoidable engagements. Nevertheless we are pleased to  have been able to integrate their written replies to our questions into our text.

• One last word on the visit: We had the honour of meeting Mr Jerzy Regulski who gave us valuable insights into the history of local government in Poland, as he was responsible for actually drafting the local government act back in 1989 and influential in launching the decentralisation reform.

Now coming to the situation of local government in Poland: 

• There are several good points that need to be underlined, starting with the fact that in general, local government in Poland is in compliance with the requirements of the Charter. In Poland’s transition to democracy, the Charter has been a guiding instrument in the creation of its local and regional bodies, providing a good example for other countries looking to reform their post-soviet systems of local governance

• Another very welcome information is that the local and regional reforms carried out in Poland since 1990 have been successful not only in decentralising the country’s administration but also in laying the foundations for a civic and democratic society.  Indeed, self-government is strongest at the local level in Poland.

• Thirdly, we felicitate the Polish government and local authorities for setting up a well-functioning good practice example of consultation and dialogue  as exemplified by the Joint Committee I have mentioned earlier.

I will, as usual, mention some areas of concern:

• I would like to mention four of them here. The first is what we have been told by both local and regional representatives: that the high level of autonomy enjoyed by local government is increasingly being eroded by central government regulation.

• The second point is the lack of adequate concomitant funding to carry out the tasks delegated to local authorities, for example in the field of education. Education forms one third of local authority budgets as they are responsible for teachers’ salaries. But they have no say in shaping salary policy; salaries  that are negotiated with the government by the (very strong) teachers’ unions. This is a politically sensitive area where different interests clash and we were told that even the well-functioning Joint Committee could not overcome this blockage.

• My third point concerns urban planning and development. It has been underlined by nearly all local representatives we met (including the ministry staff) that the division of competences between local and regional authorities with regard to spatial planning lacks clarity, creating a loophole which in turn leaves the field open to lobbies of developers, with the end result that urban construction is completely out of control.  Our interlocutors all underlined the need for urgent legislation in this area on governance of public space.

• The last point is about the financial equalisation system which apparently needs a revision to take into account changes in revenue structures. Recently, the Masovian region had filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, claiming that although their revenues were high, so was their population. Under the existing system they pay into the equalisation system as they are rich, although this causes them to fall into debt. Their claim is that the system should be based not on the number of inhabitants but on ratios. A recent Constitutional Court judgment agreed with them and gave the government a time limit within which to solve the problem. . So our impression is that some solution is imminent.

• Colleagues, I now leave the floor to Ms Hughes who will talk about the regional aspect of our report and explain our recommendations. Thank you for your attention.