Polish right-leaning lawmakers today unveiled a draft law on civil protection. This project was prepared in 2022, approved by the Committee on Security and Defense Affairs, and later consulted with communities, especially local authorities, according to Mariusz Błaszczak, the head of the PiS parliamentary club and former minister of national defense. At a press conference, he noted that the bill is ready for Parliament and remains on the desk of the current Minister of the Interior and Administrative Affairs.
The PiS parliamentary group leader appeared beside MP Paweł Głosernaker, MP Zbigniew Bogucki, and the Warsaw mayoral candidate Tobiasz Bocheński at the event.
“We are fulfilling the obligation to establish a civil protection and civil defense system.”
The draft law on civil protection and the state of natural disasters was submitted to the Chairman of the Sejm. The project aims to establish a civil defense and civil protection system. It was created in 2022, endorsed by the Committee on Security and Defense Affairs, and later consulted with communities, mainly local authorities. The Joint Committee on Government and Local Government approved the project in April 2023.
– emphasized Mariusz Błaszczak.
Subsequently, the Law Committee was convened to prepare the bill for parliamentary consideration. It remained on the desk of the current Minister of the Interior and Administrative Affairs
– added.
Błaszczak noted that when the Sejm, during the PiS government, passed the Homeland Defense Act in March 2022, a separate project would be dedicated to civil protection.
System based on PSP and OSP
The politician explained that the civil protection system would rely on the state fire service and volunteer fire brigades. Błaszczak also highlighted that the plan includes provisions beneficial to smaller towns, such as ensuring an ambulance operated by fire brigade personnel who will complete a medical rescue course in each municipality. An efficient warning system, based on mobile broadcasting, is also to be created.
Thus, even the smallest city would have access to medical assistance in crisis situations requiring such support, he argued.
PiS MP Paweł Shefernaker urged swift implementation of the project. He added that the draft leverages experiences from the pandemic, the arrival of war refugees from Ukraine, the Odra river flood, and various floods and weather anomalies observed in recent years.
Project assumptions
In addition to the above, the project would allocate to the Civil Protection Fund 0.1 percent of GDP, roughly PLN 3 billion, to support higher and lower benefits, as well as the construction, modernization, and maintenance of shelters. The RCB would continue to operate under the Ministry of the Interior and Administrative Affairs as the National Crisis Management Center. A new unit within the RCB would be the State Duty Service.
The proposal also introduces new states of emergencies and threats and includes fresh regulations concerning natural disasters.
Ideas copied by current ministry heads
Shefernaker argued that under the plan, the head of civil protection would report to the head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. He noted that several ideas from the PiS project were incorporated into the plan presented recently by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, Marcin Kierwiński, and by the Deputy Prime Minister, head of the Ministry of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. The draft law proposed by Kierwiński and Kosiniak-Kamysz includes a system for warning and alerting the population, crisis response plans, and clear criteria for constructing new facilities to serve as protective sites. The proposal envisions the civil protection chief as the head of the Interior and Administration, Marcin Kierwiński. The bill is expected to be submitted to the Sejm by the end of May.
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Source: wPolityce