Individual Political Responsibility of the Cabinet Minister in Political Practice under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland from 2nd April 1997

According to the Constitution of Poland from 2nd April 1997, a cabinet minister is political responsible for the political direction of his office to the Sejm and to the Prime Minister. The main goal of this paper is to show, that in practice, the political responsibility of the ministers before the Sejm is illusory. The majority of the vote required to adopt a motion of no confidence is so high that its vote is only possible in exceptional circumstances. Since 1997, no motion of no confidence have been successful, so the Sejm has never succeeded in enforcing the resignation of a minister. That is why, only the political responsibility of the minister before the Prime Minister has a real meaning. The head of government can lead to the dismissal of each minister at any time. When deciding to file an application to dismiss a minister, the Prime Minister must take into account only whether such a decision does not endanger the political support of the majority of the Sejm.

The competences of the Prime Minister and proper ministers in the area of national security and defence

Council of Ministers is constitutional body of the executive power in Poland which is responsible for internal and external security of the State and public order. Other than Council of Ministers competences belongs to members of Council of Ministers like Prime Minister, Minister of National Defence and minister proper to internal affairs. What’s important that are two basic areas of competences of Council of Ministers members. First of all there are competences based on dependence relation between described bodies and other public administration bodies, including for example local government and military service. On the other hand there are detailed competences that enable realization of State security and defense politics both in peace and war period.

Formation of constitutional institution of the Prime Minister of Poland

The basis for National Assembly work and its Constitutional Commission over the Constitution of the Republic of Poland passed on 2 April, 1997, was 7 Constitution Projects. Legal regulations included in those projects concerning the Prime Minister were the foundation for the process of forming the final Constitution regulations placing the Prime Minister. The analysis of those regulations should not be conducted without taking into consideration the solution of projects concerning the government as well as the model of executive power. Remarks concerning the government and the executive power may become reduced to general conception because that issue has already been analyzed in detail.