“Local government is a fundamental form of organisation of local public life. Units of local government have a legal personality as communities of residents of a given territory existing by virtue of law. Local government carries out a lion’s share of public tasks under statutory law, with the exception of those reserved by law for government administration. Units of local government carry out their public duties in their own name and on their own responsibility in order to satisfy the needs of their residents.” (Constitutional Act on Relations between the Legislature and the Executive of the Republic of Poland and on Local Government of 17 October 1992, Polish Journal of Laws Dz.U. of 1992, No. 84, item 426 as amended, Article 70 (1 and 2) and Article 71 (1 and 2)).
The administrative reform of the state of 1998 materially amended the territorial division of Poland. Key legal acts were passed in the following order:
On 5 June 1998, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland passed:
- the Act on District-level Local Government,
- the Act on Province-level Local Government, and
- the Act on Government Administration within a Province.
On 24 July 1998,the reform was supplemented by the enactment of:
- the Act on the Introduction of the Basic Three-tier Territorial Division of the State,
- the Act on the Amendment of Some Other Acts Specifying the Competencies of the Bodies of Public Administration – with Regard to the Administrative Reform of the State.
On 13 October 1998, the Act – Provisions Implementing Acts Reforming the Public Administration, which was a streamlining act, was passed.
The reform entered into force on 1 January 1999 and only then district-level and province-level local government was established (commune-level local government had already been functioning earlier, since 1990). Thanks to these changes, a dualism of power was brought back, dividing it clearly into government administration and local government. Subsequent acts clarified the division of competencies and responsibilities between various bodies.