Poland

Overview and recent developments

Poland has made a number of changes to its regulatory management practices since 2015, based on the new rules of work of the Council of Ministers, which was an activity within the Better Regulation Programme. The rules applying to the Council of Ministers which took effect in 2015 introduced public consultation as a general principle of the regulation making process, as well as requiring a consultation report. In the event that consultation does not take place, ministries are required to provide detailed justifications in Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA). There has been a significant improvement in stakeholder engagement with the general public via the introduction of a central government website; and the government also maintains an active list of participants who have stated that they wish to be informed about regulatory proposals.

RIAs are required for all laws and regulations. Changes in 2014 have included the development of new guidelines on impact assessment and the dissemination of standardised RIA forms. Ex post evaluations can be required at the request of the Council of Ministers or subsidiary bodies, and further actions in the area of systematic regulatory review particularly focused on cutting red tape are planned to commence in 2018. Over time, ex post evaluations could be broadened beyond administrative burdens and focus more on the total social, economic, and environmental impacts of regulation.

Regulatory policy requirements for the executive do not apply to laws initiated by parliament, which constituted almost 40% of all laws passed on average between 2014 and 2016. Nevertheless RIAs are expected for all legislative initiatives introduced by the Senate based on standards set by the Council of Ministers.

Institutional setup for regulatory oversight

The Chancellery of the Prime Minister is responsible for the central oversight of regulatory management tools in Poland. The Ministry of Economic Development is responsible for the systematic improvement of regulation and the better regulation agenda in Poland. The Coordinator of RIA and the Government Programming Board are jointly responsible for providing quality control of stakeholder engagement and RIA, with the Board also being responsible for quality checking ex post evaluations. The Legislative Council is responsible for providing legal scrutiny on the quality of regulatory proposals. Parliamentary oversight is limited to legal scrutiny and is provided for both laws initiated in the executive and by parliament by the Legislative Office in the Chancellery of the Senate, and by both the Bureau of Research and the Legislative Bureau in the Chancellery of the Sejm, respectively.

Requirements to use regulatory management tools for EU-made laws: Poland
Stakeholder engagement		Regulatory impact assessment
Development stage
The government facilitates the engagement of domestic stakeholders in the European Commission’s consultation process	Yes
Negotiation stage
Stakeholder engagement is required to define the negotiating position for EU directives/regulations	Yes	RIA is required to define the negotiating position for EU directives/regulations	Yes
Consultation is required to be open to the general public	No
Transposition stage
Stakeholder engagement is required when transposing EU directives	Yes	RIA is required when transposing EU directives	Yes
The same requirements and processes apply as for domestically made laws	Yes	The same requirements and processes for RIA apply as for domestically made laws	Yes
Consultation is required to be open to the general public	Yes	RIA includes a specific assessment of provisions added at the national level beyond those in the EU directives	No
		RIA distinguishes between impacts stemming from EU requirements and additional national implementation measures	No
Source: Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance Survey 2017, http://oe.cd/ireg.

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