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GLOBAL-LOCAL INTERPLAY IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION Pärnu, Estonia, October 1-4, 1998  Prof. Henryk Cwiklinski
Abstract
After 9 years of the transition period Poland`s 49 provinces are still largely the domain of public-sector clerks who are answerable only to a provincial governor appointed by the national government in Warsaw. In 1998 a radicial dose of regional democracy is going to be adopted by the Polish parliament. The reforms, which bring in a new tier of local government - the county, as it was till 1960s, and create some 12 or 14 regions, are crucial to the social reforms because many social service functions will be managed at the powiat level.
When the number of Polish regions is reduced to about a dozen, the government will still appoint governers, but they will serve only as supervisors, overseeing the work of powerful elected assemblies. The assemblies will each recive a generous dollop of localy raised taxes, and they will run all the aspects of local goverment that used to be run by the former governers, plus a lot more. Given "rule - making" rather than law - making powers, the assemblies will be free to plan regional development policy and pushing industrial restructuring. Transport and infrastructure policy, supervision of local security and police forces will all devolve to the regions.
The reforms will also create a whole new elected administrative tier, to be known as the powiat (county), of which there will be some 320 nation - wide. These are intended to bring some coordination to the workings of some 2,500 locally elected councils (gminy), which have been in existence since 1990 and which have been a very good example of the subsidiarity rules of the European Community. In addition, the new county councils will play a key role in decentralising Polish healthcare and education.
In all, the devolution of power will leave a massive 60% of public money in the hands of local and democratically accountable institutions, as opposed to the measly 20% of today.
The project is billed as a chance to root out institutionalised corruption. It means honouring campaign to bring power closer to the people. The dozen or so strong regions will give Poland a modern administrative look entirely in keeping with the "Europe of the Regions" the EU is keen to promote. The new Polish regions will also be well - placed to tap future EU aid.
In April 1998, when the abstract is being prepared, the parliament bills creating the new deal haven`t been adopted yet. They have to be ready before October 1998 when the election to community, county and region councils is planned. Economists involved in the regional studies will be able to express their opinions on an impact of the new institutional arragements on the regional development in Poland then. At the very moment the planned local government reorganisation has been provoking opposition from some of 49 provinces which will lose their gubernational status.
Poland is one of the applicants to the EU. The Baltic Sea region becomes more and more important area for the interregional cooperation in the framework of the EU. The crucial question is then if the new local government arragements in Poland can have an influence on development of the economic cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.
In order to make the analysis more realistic the paper will contain a comparision of powers of the new entities of the regional government system with 12 main strategic goals of the development of the Gdansk region, published in 1997. The new Gdansk region will be one of four big Polish regions at the northern border of the country so now reinforcing the first regional - development initiatives (some examples are to be presented in the paper) and futher mature regional programmes should be expected. First of all the region will have to connect itself to spatially shifting flows of goods and services. The lack of good accessibility will have to be remedied by developing a constistent new infrastructure policy which should be considered as one of the main task for the regional authorities. It should be their contribution to improvement in the regional competitiveness and development of the interregional cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.
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