06 April 2016, 12:56
In particular, the delegation members met with Undersecretary of State of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration of Poland Sebastian Chwalek and representatives of the Department of Local Self-Government.
Sebastian Chwalek welcomed the Committee members, pointed to the importance of cooperation in the field of local self-government and expressed hope that Ukraine, when implementing the reform of local self-government, will not only use positive experience of Polish reforms, but also take into account all the difficulties of their implementation.
Committee Chairperson Serhii Vlasenko said that the Parliamentary Committee in its activity will apply only the best achievements that had been implemented at each stage of the reform of power decentralization in Poland and take them into account in its legislative work.
People's deputies of Ukraine - members of the Committee were particularly interested in information of the comparative nature on the number of administrative territorial units that had existed before the reform of power decentralization and after its introduction in the 90s, the powers of local self-government bodies, mechanisms and reasons for the introduction of control over their activities, feasibility and effectiveness of the functioning of the three-level system of local self-government in the Republic of Poland.
For the members of the delegation held was a presentation touching the functioning of the bodies of public administration and supervision over the local authorities in Poland. Representative of the Department of Local Self-Government A.Koczak described the main stages of changes in the system of public administration, familiarized with the processes and mechanisms of provinces merging that took place in 1999, delivered statistics on the number of communes, counties, provinces and cities with the status of counties, reported on the structure of the government administration in Poland. At that, special attention was focused on the tasks of the government administration in provinces and their performers. The spokesman familiarized the delegation members with the competence of the voivode (governor) as a representative of the Council of Ministers, major powers and structure of the governor's office.
Head of the Department of Local Self-Government Joanna Adamczyk-Siwek told about the communes as the basic units of local self-government in Poland, their number, peculiarities of their formation and legal status, and also familiarized with the principles of the organization of activities and powers of counties and provinces. She stressed that cooperation between the Government and local authorities is carried out through the Joint Commission of the Government and of the Local Government, which considers problematic issues concerning the functioning of local self-government and public policy in relation to the local self-government, elaborates common position of the Government and local authorities in setting of economic and social priorities in issues having relation to the utilities and the functioning of commune and county self-government. The speaker briefed those present on the composition of the Joint Commission, and provided statistical information on its activities in 2015.
Head of the government administration's department Cezary Zarepa spoke about the functioning in Poland of commissar management, which lies in suspension of local authorities' operations in the event of improper execution of their powers, entities responsible for the submission of corresponding petitions, and mechanism of such management introduction. Thus, on the basis of a governor's petition the Minister of the Interior and Administration submits a notion to the Prime Minister who, in his turn, makes final decision on the introduction of commissar management. At that, communes have the right to challenge the decision of the Prime Minister in court.
Head of the supervision division of the Department of Public Administration Arthur Khruschinski familiarized the members of the delegation with the institute of regional accounting chambers, which have functions of supervision and control over the financial aspects of functioning of units of territorial local self-government and related entities, carry out expert and informational work, and conduct training on the implementation of laws in this area.
There were also meetings with an advisor to the President of Poland Urszula Doroszewska, Deputy Director of the Office of Foreign Affairs under the Chancellery of the President of Poland and an expert of the Office.
The meeting participants discussed the issue of implementation by all parties to the conflict in the east of Ukraine of the Minsk agreements, pointing to the need for strict adherence to the reached consensus.
They also discussed some aspects of the historical and political assessment of the Volyn tragedy and search for compromises regarding the said problem at the inter-parliamentary level. Representatives of the Polish and Ukrainian sides also paid attention to a topic sensitive for Ukraine - release of Nadiya Savchenko.