Polish Senate

According to the Constitution, the Republic of Poland is a democratic state ruled by law, whose system rests on the principle of the separation and balance of powers. Executive power is exercised by the President and the Council of Ministers, legislative power – by the Parliament, and judicial power – by courts and tribunals.

SENATE AT A GLANCE
The Polish Parliament consists of two Chambers. The Senate – the upper house - exercises legislative power together with the Sejm – the lower house – but unlike the latter it has no control over the executive power. The Senate is composed of 100 senators, elected for a four-year term in universal and direct elections by secret ballot. The Senate has its seat in Warsaw.

EU MATTERS
Both Houses carry out scrutiny of European activities, but each has a slightly different role. Following Poland’s accession to the EU on 1 May 2004, the Senate appointed the European Union Affairs Committee as a body competent to act on behalf of the chamber in all EU matters. The framework for cooperation of the Government with the Sejm and the Senate in EU matters is defined in the Act of 8 October 2010 (the Cooperation Act), which provides for all changes made by the Treaty of Lisbon.

The Committee deals with EU documents, the Government’s positions on EU legislative proposals, as well as with any other issues it deems relevant to Poland’s membership in the EU. The Committee’s opinions, expressed on behalf of the Senate, are non-binding on the Government. The scrutiny process, as well as subsidiarity check are performed in cooperation with sectoral committees.

The committees’ opinions on EU legislative proposals deemed non-compliant with the subsidiarity principle are brought to the plenary for a vote. The Senate holds also plenary debates on the Government’s semi-annual reports on Poland’s participation in EU activities, as well as the Commission annual work programmes.

SCRUTINY – How does it work?
Documents received by the Committee are subject to a selection process, carried out by the Chair and the two Deputy Chairs prior to the Committee sitting. The meeting is attended by a staff of analysts responsible for providing background information and preliminary opinions on EU legislative proposals or government positions. A senator rapporteur is assigned to each document selected for debate. A draft agenda for a Committee sitting is also drawn up.

At a sitting, the Committee – having heard the government officials, the rapporteur, and at times also experts – either makes a decision not to put forward any comments or formulates an opinion, which is subsequently published as a Senate paper. After the sitting a list of  decisions is compiled and, together with the Committee’s opinions, forwarded to the Government.

According to the Senate Rules and Regulations, there is a separate procedure for subsidiarity check on EU legislative proposals. Any committee which finds a breach of the principle of subsidiarity may put forward a Senate draft resolution in this respect. Then the Marshal refers the draft resolution to that sectoral  committee for joint consideration with the EU Affairs Committee. The final opinion on the EU legislative proposal’s non-compliance with the subsidiarity principle is voted on at the Senate plenary sitting.  

(Information updated on 05.03.2019)

Monitoring compliance with the principle of subsidiarity by the Senate 41 KB / 15/10/2012