Approvals and Opinions Unit

The Approvals and Opinions Unit in Warsaw is responsible for implementing the regional government tasks concerning development policy and spatial planning, in accordance with the granted powers of attorney, in particular concerning the scope of the Act on spatial planning and development of March 27, 2003:

reviewing drafts of local spatial development documents (studies of conditions and directions of spatial development and local spatial development plans);approving projects of studies of conditions and directions of spatial development;approving projects of local spatial development plans in terms of regional government tasks and landscape audit results;approving drafts of public-purpose investments decisions and building condition decisions;issuing opinions on acts on rules concerning street furniture, billboards, advertising devices and fencing;preparing materials when a complaint is filed on a regional government decision to the Local Government Appeal Council;maintaining a register of decisions on the location of national and regional public purpose investments;maintaining a  register of decisions on the location of national and regional public purpose investments;maintaining a register of local (municipal and county level) public purpose investments.

Other tasks of the Approvals and Opinions Unit in Warsaw include:

preparing responses to requests for public information;preparing answers and position papers in response to: letters, protests, inquiries, interpellations and petitions addressed to the regional government;preparing opinions, analyses, position papers concerning draft laws, regulations and documents on the European, national and regional level;taking care of formal aspects of the functioning of the Regional Urban Planning and Architecture Committee.

The unit has participated in the implementation of such projects as:

D-Air– Decarbonated Airport Regions (Interreg IV C),QLAIR (ARC), Civitas.Net (URBACT),NODUS (URBACT II),NSBCoRe – „North Sea Baltic Connector of regions” (Interreg Baltic Sea Region),Intra Policentricity (Metrex),Rail Baltica Growth Corridor – (Baltic Sea Region Program 2007-2013),Airport Regions Conference (association of regions and cities with international airports),YouInHerit – „ Youth involvement in the innovative valorisation and revival of traditional trades and crafts as cultural heritage to make urban regions more attractive and competitive in a dynamic age” (Interreg Central Europe).

Publishing Unit

The Publishing Unit is responsible for:

acquiring texts for publication,preparing texts for publication,managing the editorial process,graphic design,proofreading,typesetting and preparing materials for print,preparing public relations materials.

The Publishing Unit prints: large-format maps, mapping studies, promotional materials designed by the Unit (bookmarks, flyers, folders, calendars, business cards, banners, etc.) and the monograph series “MAZOWSZE. Analizy i Studia” (Mazovia: Analyses and studies).

The Publishing Unit coordinates the publication process of a local scientific periodical „MAZOWSZE Studia Regionalne” (Mazovia: Regional Studies).

Organizational and Administrative Unit

The Organizational and Administrative Unit is supervised by the Office Deputy Director for Logistics. Its main task is to provide organizational and administrative services for the entire Office. The tasks carried out by the unit include:

property management and upkeep,maintaining the Office archives,maintaining a storage of office supplies,supervising IT equipment, databases and the Office webpage,managing the IT network,planning and managing public contracts,purchasing materials, assets and services,securing transport needs,providing front office service,ensuring safety and hygiene at work,providing service for employees’ foreign business trips;providing service for projects being implemented by the Officeworking in the field of public relations.

Bicycle infrastructure standards and bicycle route concept

Bicycle infrastructure standards and concept of bicycle routes of the province adopted by the Board of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship.

The Board of the Mazovian Voivodeship, mindful of the need to implement a coherent network of functional bicycle infrastructure within the voivodeship, adopted the following on June 28. Bicycle infrastructure standardsand the concept of bicycle routes indicated for implementation in the perspective until 2030 in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship. The document was prepared by the Mazovian Regional Planning Office in Warsaw.

The standards specify the conditions for effective planning, design and execution of bicycle infrastructure. They are based on examples of good practice and an analysis of problems faced by bicycle traffic in Poland.

The document also implements the provisions of the Spatial Development Plan of the Mazovian Voivodeship, which preliminarily defined a backbone network of bicycle routes based on routes of international, supra-regional and regional scope. In the Concept of bicycle routes indicated for implementationin the perspective until 2030, the routes providing connections of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship with routes of international and supra-regional range, as well as service to Warsaw and all sub-regional centers were detailed.and all sub-regional centers.

The standards should be attached to the specification of essential terms of the contract (ToR) in ordersand contracts for preparatory and construction works affecting cycling conditions in the province. This applies both to investments implemented by the Mazowieckie Voivodeship Self-Governmentand its subordinate units (such as the Mazovian Voivodeship Road Administration), as well as those implemented with the support of funds distributed by the Voivodeship Government, including European Funds for Mazovia. Thus, compliance with the Standards should be ensured in the case of investments in infrastructure for cyclists financed with funds at the disposal of the Mazovian Voivodeship.

The Standards apply to: construction and reconstruction of bicycle routes and their components, including roads for bicycles, pedestrian and bicycle trails, roads without separate bicycle infrastructure and pedestrian areas with permitted bicycle traffic, as well as traffic lights and engineering facilities – footbridges, tunnels and bridges. It is recommended that the Standards be applied during railroad and embankment projects, infrastructure with high potential for bicycle routes.

Due to the universal nature of the Standards, they can also be used by municipalities and counties of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship as guidelines for the design and construction of bicycle infrastructure not co-financed by the voivodeship government. For this purpose, they will be provided to all local government units in the province.

Bicycle infrastructure standards and the concept of bicycle routes indicated for implementation in the perspective until 2030 in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship are available in electronic version as an attachment to Resolution 1100/333/22 of the Board of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship and on the website of the Mazowieckie Regional Planning Office. You will soon be able to get acquainted with the course of the routes in the “Geoportal – Integrated monitoring of spatial development of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship” tab.

Change Mazovia with us

Voting in the Mazovia Citizens’ Budget begins on Wednesday, June 8. It will be the residents of the capital and surrounding areas who will decide which projects will be implemented.The Mazovian local government has allocated PLN 25 million for the implementation of the winning projects.

Among the projects selected for voting are educational and artistic workshops for childrenand adults, construction of bicycle paths, preventive training in improving driving techniques, purchase of ambulances and hospital equipment, modernization of sidewalks and many others.

The deadline for voting is June 30.

Mazovian residents can choose from 174 projects qualified for voting.

47 projects from the province-wide pool27 projects with positive evaluation from the Radom subregion21 projects with positive evaluation from the Plock subregion17 projects with positive evaluation from the Siedlce subregion16 projects with a positive evaluation from the Warsaw West subregion13 projects with a positive evaluation from the Ciechanów subregion11 projects with positive evaluation from the eastern Warsaw subregion9 projects with positive evaluation from the Ostroleka subregion8 projects with positive evaluation from the Zyrardowski subregion5 projects with positive evaluation from Warsaw

A list of projects eligible for voting on the Mazovia Citizens’ Budget website.

More information on the page of the Civic Budget of Mazovia.

Change in the provisions of the Anti-smog Resolution for Mazovia

Clean air in Mazovia is our common goal, the achievement of which will undoubtedly be accelerated by the amendment of the provisions of the current anti-smog resolution adopted by the Mazovian Regional Parliament. The amendment introduces a ban on burning coal in Warsaw starting in October 2023. In turn, at the beginning of 2028, the provision will also come into force in the counties of the suburban “ring road”.

What will change?

The most important changes relate primarily to:

The resolution’s introduction of a ban on hard coal and solid fuels produced using it:

as of October 1, 2023, within the administrative boundaries of the city of Warsaw;As of January 1, 2028, within the administrative boundaries of municipalities comprising the districts of Grodzisk, Legionowo, Minsk, Novodworski, Piaseczynski, Pruszkowski, Otwock, Warsaw West and Wołomin.

Introduce a ban on the operation of solid fuel (including biomass) boilers in newly constructed buildings for which an application for a building permit or notification was submitted after January 1, 2023, if there is a technical possibility of connecting the building to a district heating network, which is located in the area directly adjacent to the investor’s plot on which the installation is located.Introduce exemptions in the resolution for coal-fired boilers operated within the boundaries of counties located in the NUTS2 area – Warsaw Capital Region – coal-fired boilers installed before June 1, 2022 will be allowed to operate until the end of their useful life.Leave the possibility of using class 5 coal boilers until the end of their life.

All additional information on the current anti-smog resolution and its amendments can be found on the Mazovia website under the “Anti-smog Resolution” tab.

Attention contest! Start from Mazovia – 4th edition

This is the fourth edition of the “Start from Mazovia” competition, aimed at Mazovian start-ups that create innovative ideas and products and have been operating for no longer than 3 years. Companies that take partin the competition have a chance to win prizes with a total value of PLN 90,000, as well as gain valuable contacts, promote their ideas through various communication channels and publicity in industry media.

Who can apply to “Startup from Mazovia”?

The competition is dedicated to start-ups registered in the Mazovia province and operating no longer than 3 years from the date of the competition announcement.The competition is decided in the following categories:

INNO-TECH – for start-ups that create new products and processes and significant technological changesin products and processes, including product, process, system innovations; for a start-up in the growth phase at the sales stage;SOCIAL IMPACT – for a start-up with a positive environmental or social impact, regardless of the stage of development;START – for a start-up that creates an innovative project that is at the Minimum Value Product or prototype stage, which is likely to grow and scale effectively.

What does participation in the competition provide?

Assistance in development and, above all, financial support at the beginning of the business road is the dream of many entrepreneurs. Participation in the Mazovian competition gives much more! The total prize pool is PLN 90,000, and additionally it is also a chance to win special prizes from the competition’s Partners, including: substantive consultations related to business development and raising financing, the opportunity to participate inin training and mentoring programs, or presentation before a group of investors. Startups can also count on gaining business contacts, promotion of their idea in the media or a professional photo session.

Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor

The Baltic-Adriatic Transport Corridor is an initiative whose primary goal is to strengthen strategic links between countries and regions on the North-South axis by improving their transport accessibility, intensifying transportation and promoting new directions for the movement of people and goods.

The importance of the North-South transport axis, on which there has been invariably lively trade for several hundred years, although difficult to overestimate, has still not been sufficiently appreciated. With Poland’s integration into the EU came the chance to decisively strengthen the rank of existing connections. Decisive for the whole idea was the year 2009, in which initiatives for interregional cooperation undertaken for the realization of the VI Pan-European Transport Corridor gained the desired momentum and dynamics. On October 6, 14 regions representing Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia Austria and Italy signed an agreement for the “immediate realization of the North-South rail corridor” (Gdansk/Gdynia – Warsaw – Brno/Bratislava – Vienna – Bologna); in turn, on December 3, 9 regions representing Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria signed a joint declaration confirming the European and regional importance of the Gdansk-Brno-Vienna highway axis.

Another important date was June 23, 2010 when representatives of 7 Polish voivodeships: Pomeranian, Kuyavian-Pomeranian, Warmian-Masurian, Mazovian, Greater Poland, Łódź and Silesian signed a letter of intent to strengthen interregional cooperation to create development conditions for the Baltic-Adriatic Transport Corridor in Poland. At the same time, the signatories of this agreement expressed the common view that the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor in the foreseeable future may become a key factor in the economic development of Poland and the regions located along its route.

Meanwhile, the culmination of all the efforts of numerous stakeholders to date was the establishment of the Association of Polish Regions of the Baltic-Adriatic Transport Corridor on March 30, 2012.

Among the statutory objectives of SPR KTBA were:

creating and promoting at home and abroad the development zone of the Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor delineated by the course of the A-1 highway and the E-65 and CE-65 railroad lines;Ensuring inter-regional consistency of strategic and spatial planning in the corridor zone in Poland;initiating projects for the economic development of the corridor zone, especially in its nodal points (initiating the establishment of logistics centers, intermodal terminals, special economic zones, etc.);monitoring of ongoing and planned transportation infrastructure investments (point and linear) implemented from public and private sources. The collected material is presented in the annual “Report on the status of work on the construction of linear and point infrastructure in the Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor zone in Poland”,initiating activities to raise the profile of intermodal transport in the corridor’s impact zone using the Vistula River waterway, rail transport and modern intermodal technologies.The Board of Directors of the SPR KTBA consists of – President of the Association Ryszard Świlski of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Government, as well as Aleksandra Banasiak of the Silesian Voivodeship Government and Marcin Bugajski of the Lodz Voivodeship Government.

Chairman of the Audit Committee is Leszek Ruszczyk, Deputy Marshal of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, while members of the Executive Committee on behalf of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship Self-Government are Tomasz Slawinski and Michal Hackiewicz from the Mazowieckie Regional Planning Office in Warsaw.

The location of the continental part of the Baltic-Adriatic transport corridor covers the area from the ports of Gdynia and Gdansk to the ports of the northern Adriatic, Italy and Slovenia, although branches of the corridor also reach the Aegean and Black Sea basins. The corridor is 1,700 kilometers long, while 55 million people from five EU member states live in the regions it crosses. The Scandinavian part of the corridor, meanwhile, includes a connection from Oslo to Karlskrona. The Swedish part of the corridor has been given the status of “Gdynia-Karlskrona marine highway.”

The Baltic-Adriatic international transport corridor, the filling of which in the territory of Poland is the A1 highway and the E-65 railroad line and the Central Railway Line, is of considerable importance in both national and European terms. The Community institutions gave expression to this fact by placing the Baltic-Adriatic corridor on the list of 30 priority projects of the Trans-European Transport Network TEN-T, and for the second time last October when, together with a section of the Rail Baltica corridor, it was included in the prestigious Corridor No. 1 in the proposal for a modified TEN-T network.

An additional gas pedal of intermodal transport in Poland, including on the north-south axis, will soon become rail transport corridors, which in European nomenclature are called Railway Freight Corridors (RFC) and should be designated in all EU countries by 2015. They will be established on rail lines primarily intended for freight transport. Infrastructure management in the corridors is to be integrated, and maintenance and transport standards unified. Two rail routes are likely to run through Poland, i.e. corridor No. 5: Gdynia – Katowice – Ostrava/Zilina – Bratislava/Vienna – /Clagenfurt – Udine – (Venice Bologna/Ravenna)/Trieste – /Graz – Maribor – Ljubljana – Koper/Trieste, and corridor No. 8: Bremerhaven/Rotterdam/Antwerp – Aachen/Berlin – Warsaw – Terespol/Kovno.