Cabinet of Poland

Poland

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The Cabinet of Poland (officially the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland) consists of the Prime Minister (President of the Council of Ministers) and ministers. Deputy Prime Ministers (Vice-presidents of the Council of Ministers) and presidents of committees specified in statutes may also be appointed to the Cabinet. The Council of Ministers is the body which exercises executive power. Under the Public Administration Branches Act the Prime Minister, who heads the Council of Ministers, enjoys a considerable degree of freedom in decisions concerning its personnel. The Prime Minister may create, combine, or dissolve departments, change their area of responsibility, and even apply to the President to expand the Council of Ministers to include ministers without portfolio, or coordinators for projects performed by the Council of Ministers, e.g. reform of the educational system or health service. The chairpersons of committees specified in the legislation may also be appointed to the Council of Ministers, but currently no such positions exist (the Chairman of the Committee for European Integration, until 2009, and the Chairman of the Committee for Scientific Research, until 2006, were the most recent cases). The composition of the Council of Ministers is proposed by the Prime Minister, who lodges an application to the President of the Republic for the appointment of cabinet members. The President appoints the Council of Ministers and receives their oath "of loyalty to the Constitution and other laws of the Republic of Poland".

Currently, the Council of Ministers consists of the following 20 members:

Minister Office
Donald Tusk Prime Minister
Waldemar Pawlak Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy
Michał Boni Minister of Administration and Digitization
Marek Sawicki Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
Bogdan Zdrojewski Minister of Culture and National Heritage
Marcin Korolec Minister of Environment
Jan Vincent-Rostowski Minister of Finance
Radosław Sikorski Minister of Foreign Affairs
Bartosz Arłukowicz Minister of Health
Jacek Cichocki Minister of Interior
Jarosław Gowin Minister of Justice
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz Minister of Labour and Social Policy
Tomasz Siemoniak Minister of National Defence
Krystyna Szumilas Minister of National Education
Elżbieta Bieńkowska Minister of Regional Development
Barbara Kudrycka Minister of Science and Higher Education
Joanna Mucha Minister of Sport and Tourism
Mikołaj Budzanowski Minister of State Treasury
Sławomir Nowak Minister of Transport, Construction and Marine Economy
Tomasz Arabski Minister without portfolio

The Council of Ministers also manages the current policy of state, ensures the execution of the law by issuing ordinances, coordinates and controls the work of government administrative bodies, ensures public order and the internal and external security of the state, protects the interests of the State Treasury, approves the draft of the budget, and supervises its execution. The Council of Ministers also signs international agreements which require ratification, and can revoke other international agreements.

Members of the Council of Ministers are jointly responsible to Sejm for the operation of the government; they can also be individually responsible for the tasks entrusted to them by the Prime Minister or falling within the authority of their ministries. Any breach of the law or crime related to the offices they hold carry the risk of trial before the State Tribunal, a special court appointed by Sejm. The Council of Ministers is represented in the different voivodships of the country by its voivodes or regional governors. There are 16 of them - one for each voivodeship. The voivodes supervise the state administration within the territory of their voivodeship. The officials subordinate to the voivodes, as well as those working in the central offices and ministries, constitute the civil service corps, a politically independent body or administrators. The civil service corps is headed by the Prime Minister.

Alongside the civil service corps, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and all ministries entail political cabinets - teams of advisors working for the government and each ministry on detailed policy guidelines.

See also