Law on powers takes effect as of January 1

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Ludwik Dorn said the government would keep January 1, 2006 as the deadline for the so called law on powers to take effect. He admitted that the law comprised a number of errors but said they would be systematically corrected.
The amendment to the law which changes the division of tasks and powers of the local administration called in short the law on powers introduces amendments to 32 laws. The amendments consist on transferring certain provincial governor’s powers to local government of the province or a county as tasks commissioned by the state administration. The law was passed in July and its regulations are to take effect as of January 1, 2006.
The transfer of powers to smaller administration units relates, among other things, to granting licenses for the renovation or construction of military grave and cemeteries, the keeping of registers of personal and pay files keepers, receiving notifications about writing foundations into the National Court Registry, shifting certain communes to another tax district in justified cases, setting up locations in which local payment is collected, supervising the forest economy.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration MSWiA wants to revise powers of the government and local government administration in the context of EU structural funds. Dorn did not rule out the possibility of shifting these powers to local government.
The deputy prime minister announced that as part of power devolution he would try to transfer to local government not only powers but also means related to these powers.
Dorn suggested that there was a need to change the country territorial division in the part related to counties (powiats). He also announced that by the end of the year a draft law on crisis management would be worked out and the Main Office for Computerization of Public Administration would be set up to coordinate computerization of separate ministries.
 

 
Grzegorz Bliźniuk appointed government commissioner for Schengen II

Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz appointed undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration MSWiA Grzegorz Bliźniuk government commissioner for Schengen system and the exchange of visa information within the European Union.
The government information centre CIR wrote in a statement sent to Polish Press Agency PAP that Bliźniuk will be responsible for the preparation of the state administration bodies to cooperate with the Schengen Information System (SIS II) and the Visa Information System (VIS).
The new commissioner will prepare the Polish public administration
to function within the Schengen system and will work on making up for delays in the field. Bliźniuk is also to prepare Poland for participation in the VIS program.
Schengen Information System SIS II aims to enlarge Schengen area by countries which joined the European Union on May 1, 2004. Schengen system that entered into force in 1995 groups all countries of the European Union except for Great Britain and Ireland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
All entering the Schengen area pass only one border control – at the external border. Next countries can be visited without any checking. In a referendum held in June integration with Schengen was also supported by Swiss citizens.
Visa Information System VIS, set up in June last year closely cooperates with the SIS II system.
Work on VIS which is still not competed is to enable the exchange of information between membership countries on people that gained EU visas. It refers, e.g. to situations threatening union internal security, skipping criteria included in visa applications, illegal migration.
The European Commission reported in June it planned to launch SIS II system in March 2007.
 
 

Government adopts draft amendment to law on medical emergency service

The government adopted a draft amendment to the law on medical emergency service. The government wants the draft to take effect as of December 31, 2005. The government plans to amend the law because without the amendment taking effect on January 1, 2006 in force will be two laws regulating the financing of the medical emergency service.
Under the first one, pre-hospital services are financed from the state budget. According to the second they are paid by the National Health Fund. (NFZ). Until December 31, 2005 the said services will be paid by the National Health Fund on to-date basis, the government wrote in the draft amendment.
The Council of Ministers wants all spending not related to pays in emergency dispatch centers to be covered by the state budget target reserve.
 
 

Principles regulating issuing driving licenses to heads and staff of foreign diplomatic missions

The Council of Ministers adopted a draft law changing certain laws in connection with changes to tasks and powers of local administration.
Under the amendment provincial governors will retain those powers which are related
to the implementation of government tasks and programmes.
The said powers include the issuing of driving licenses to heads and staff of foreign missions, supervision over the course of state exams and the management of the provincial road safety council.
Provincial road transport inspectors will be accountable to the Chief Road Transport Inspector.
The provincial governor as the government representative in the province will have the upper say on the route of a home road and will issue a permit for its construction.
The law takes effect on December 31, 2005.
 

 
Amendment to law on General Attorney Office of State Treasury

The Council of Ministers adopted a draft law amending the law on General Attorney Office of the State Treasury. The adopted draft removes legal loopholes which would prevent the General Attorney Office of the State Treasury to efficiently defend rights and
interests of the State Treasury.
The proposed amendments eliminates the threat to the State Treasury of being unable to lodge appeals claims to the Supreme Court after the General Attorney Office of the State Treasury is set up. So it will have the right to lodge appeals’ claims. Under the draft there will be no need to set up 10 divisions of the General Attorney Office. So far separate divisions have been involved in a few to a few scores of trials which may easily be taken over by the Main General Attorney Office.
If there is a need to set up a specific division in future it will be established by an ordinance of the prime minister. The amendment puts off the deadline for starting operations by the General Attorney Office from January 1, 2006 to March 15, 2006. The decision is to enable efficient preparation of the new unit for carrying out its tasks.

 
Government adopts draft law on free meals

The government adopted a draft law on a free meal program for 2006-2009 for children, youth, old-age, sick and disabled. In 2006 the government plans to assign for the program more than 831 million PLN with 500 million PLN from the state budget.
The program “State Assistance in Providing Free Meals” envisages help via either a free-of-charge meal or money for the purchase of food and the sponsorship of school canteens.
 

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