The Authority Structure in Poland

Since 1 January, 1999, the territorial division binding in Poland comprises a borough, a poviat and a voivodeship. These communes are three independent levels of the self-government.

VOIVODESHIP

The Voivodeship’s self-government determines the Voivodeship’s development strategy and executes its development policy which comprises:

1. forming the conditions for economic development, including creating the labour market,
2. maintaining and extending the social and technical infrastructure of the Voivodeship significance,
3. acquiring and combining the public and private financial resources in order to execute the tasks in the scope of the public usability,
4. supporting and running the activities to increase the educational level of citizens,
5. rational usage of the natural resources and forming the natural environment with the principle of the balanced development,
6. supporting the development of science and co-operation between the sphere of science and economy,
7. promoting the technological progress and the protection and rational usage of the cultural heritage,
8. promoting the Voivodeship’s development prospects and opportunities

The Voivodeship self-government executes the tasks of the Voivodeship nature, determined by laws and particularly in the following scope:

1. public education, including the schools of higher education,
2. health promotion and protection,
3. culture and protection of its values,
4. social welfare,
5. modernising the rural areas,
6. land development,
7. environment protection,
8. public roads and collective transport,
9. physical culture and tourism,
10. counteracting the unemployment and activating the local labour market.

Apart from the self-governmental authorities, in each voivodeship it is the Voivod, appointed by the Cabinet, that holds an office. He is the superior of the team governmental administration, the supervision body over the territorial self-government units as well as the senior body as per the regulations for administrative proceedings. The Voivod represents the treasury in the scope and upon the regulations stipulated in separate laws. Being the Cabinet’s representative, he is responsible for exercising the government’s policy within the voivodeship.

POVIAT

There are two types of poviats: the basic territorial division unit that comprises the entire areas of the bordering boroughs – a land poviat or the whole town area – a town with the rights of a poviat. A poviat executes the public tasks of cross-borough nature. It serves the inhabitants in quite a general scope, among others, it maintains and manages schools, libraries and social clubs, supervises the road constructions and repairs as well as manages the social welfare and fights the unemployment.

BOROUGH

A borough is the fundamental community and the smallest administrative unit. The scope of its activity comprise the public affairs of the local significance, unreserved statutorily for other entities. Predominantly, a borough is responsible for satisfying the primary, concrete needs of its inhabitants; it deals with planning and managing the lands, environment protection, roads, bridges, streets, public transport, supplying the inhabitants with electricity and heating; keeping the surroundings tidy as well as managing and maintaining the borough buildings and the public usage facilities.