Poland Government Profile 2009

Country name

conventional long form: Republic of Poland
conventional short form: Poland
local long form: Rzeczpospolita Polska
local short form: Polska

Government type

republic

Capital

name: Warsaw
geographic coordinates: 52 15 N, 21 00 E
time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October

Administrative divisions

16 provinces (wojewodztwa, singular - wojewodztwo); Dolnoslaskie (Lower Silesia), Kujawsko-Pomorskie (Kuyavia-Pomerania), Lodzkie, Lubelskie (Lublin), Lubuskie (Lubusz), Malopolskie (Lesser Poland), Mazowieckie (Masovia), Opolskie, Podkarpackie (Subcarpathia), Podlaskie, Pomorskie (Pomerania), Slaskie (Silesia), Swietokrzyskie, Warminsko-Mazurskie (Warmia-Masuria), Wielkopolskie (Greater Poland), Zachodniopomorskie (West Pomerania)

Independence

11 November 1918 (republic proclaimed)

National holiday

Constitution Day, 3 May (1791)

Constitution

adopted by the National Assembly 2 April 1997; passed by national referendum 25 May 1997; effective 17 October 1997

Legal system

based on a mixture of Continental (Napoleonic) civil law and holdover Communist legal theory; changes being gradually introduced as part of broader democratization process; limited judicial review of legislative acts, but rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal are final; court decisions can be appealed to the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations

Suffrage

18 years of age; universal

Executive branch

chief of state: President Lech KACZYNSKI (since 23 December 2005)
head of government: Prime Minister Donald TUSK (since 16 November 2007); Deputy Prime Ministers Waldemar PAWLAK (since 16 November 2007) and Grzegorz SCHETYNA (since 16 November 2007)
cabinet: Council of Ministers responsible to the prime minister and the Sejm; the prime minister proposes, the president appoints, and the Sejm approves the Council of Ministers
elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 9 and 23 October 2005 (next to be held in the fall 2010); prime minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president and confirmed by the Sejm
election results: Lech KACZYNSKI elected president; percent of popular vote - Lech KACZYNSKI 54%, Donald Tusk 46%

Legislative branch

bicameral legislature consists of an upper house, the Senate or Senat (100 seats; members are elected by a majority vote on a provincial basis to serve four-year terms), and a lower house, the Sejm (460 seats; members are elected under a complex system of proportional representation to serve four-year terms); the designation of National Assembly or Zgromadzenie Narodowe is only used on those rare occasions when the two houses meet jointly
elections: Senate - last held 21 October 2007 (next to be held by October 2011); Sejm elections last held 21 October 2007 (next to be held by October 2011)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PO 60, PiS 39, independents 1; Sejm - percent of vote by party - PO 41.5%, PiS 32.1%, LiD 13.2%, PSL 8.9%, other 4.3%; seats by party - PO 209, PiS 166, LiD 53, PSL 31, German minorities 1; note - seats by parliamentary grouping as of February 2009 - PO 208, PiS 156, Left 42, PSL 31, SDPL-New Left 5, Polska XXI 6, Democratic Caucus 3, German minorities 1, nonaffiliated 8
note: one seat is assigned to ethnic minority parties in the Sejm only

Judicial branch

Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary for an indefinite period); Constitutional Tribunal (judges are chosen by the Sejm for nine-year terms)

Political parties and leaders

Civic Platform or PO [chairman Donald TUSK; parliamentary caucus leader Zbigniew CHLEBOWSKI]; Democratic Caucus of the Democratic Party (SD) or DKP SD [parliamentary caucus leader Bogdan LIS]; Democratic Left Alliance or SLD [chairman Grzegorz NAPIERALSKI]; Democratic Party or PD [chairwoman Brygida KUZNIAK]; Democratic Party or SD [chairman Pawel PISKORSKI]; German Minority of Lower Silesia or MNSO [representative Henryk KROLL]; Law and Justice or PiS [chairman Jaroslaw KACZYNSKI; parliamentary caucus leader Przemyslaw GOSIEWSKI]; League of Polish Families or LPR [acting chairman Arnold MASIN]; Left (Democratic Left Alliance and independents) [parliamentary caucus leader Grzegorz NAPIERALSKI]; Polish People's Party or PSL [chairman Waldemar PAWLAK; parliamentary caucus leader Stanislaw ZELICHOWSKI]; Polska XXI (political grouping of former PiS members; not officially registered) [chairman Jaroslaw SELLIN; parliamentary caucus leader Kazimierz Michal UJAZDOWSKI]; Samoobrona or SO [chairman Andrzej LEPPER]; Social Democratic Party of Poland or SDPL [chairman Wojciech FILEMONOWICZ]; Social Democratic Party of Poland-New Left (SDPL-New Left) [parliamentary caucus leader Marek BOROWSKI]; Union of Labor or UP [chairman Waldemar WITKOWSKI]

Political pressure groups and leaders

All Poland Trade Union Alliance or OPZZ (trade union) [Jan GUZ]; Roman Catholic Church [Cardinal Stanislaw DZIWISZ, Archbishop Jozef MICHALIK]; Solidarity Trade Union [Janusz SNIADEK]

International organization participation

Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA (cooperating state), EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, Schengen Convention, SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US

chief of mission: Ambassador Robert KUPIECKI
chancery: 2640 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
telephone: [1] (202) 234-3800 through 3802
FAX: [1] (202) 328-6271
consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US

chief of mission: Ambassador Victor ASHE
embassy: Aleje Ujazdowskie 29/31 00-540 Warsaw
mailing address: American Embassy Warsaw, US Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-5010 (pouch)
telephone: [48] (22) 504-2000
FAX: [48] (22) 504-2688
consulate(s) general: Krakow

Flag description

two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; similar to the flags of Indonesia and Monaco which are red (top) and white

Group

All, OREA, Russia/Eurasia, European Union, Europe