The "Mom 4 Plus" parental benefit, proposals to ensure the transparency of salaries of central bank executives, and the bill presented by the Senate to protect property owners from excessive costs of transforming perpetual usufruct into ownership - these were some of the issues that the Sejm worked on yesterday. Before starting the session, the Sejm paid tribute to the memory of Andrzej Liss, a Solidarity activist and member of the 4th and 5th Sejms, who passed away on January 21, as well as to the memory of Antoni Zambrowski, a democratic opposition activist and political prisoner.

The Sejm passed and sent to the Senate seven bills

The "Mom 4 Plus" parental supplemental benefit bill provides that The benefit will be available to persons who have given birth to and brought up or brought up at least four children, and due to taking care of numerous offspring have not earned the minimum pension or their benefit is lower than it. In the case of the mother's death, the money will be paid to the children's father. The benefit of PLN 1,100 will be paid by the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) or the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (KRUS) upon the request of the mother when she turns 60 (or the father when he turns 65). If an eligible person is already receiving a pension lower than the minimum benefit, he or she will receive compensation equal to its amount. According to the government's estimates, approximately 65,000 persons will be eligible for the full amount of the "Mom 4 Plus" benefit, while another 20,800 will receive it in part.

According to the law passed by the MPs concerning the limitation of salaries in the National Bank of Poland NBP salaries will not exceed 60% of the total remuneration of the President of the Bank. NBP Management Board members and persons holding managerial positions will be obliged to submit asset declarations. The remuneration of the President and Vice-Presidents of the Bank will be regulated under the existing rules, also the remuneration policy for the NBP employees will remain in the domain of the Bank Management Board.

The Sejm decided on adoption of new provisions protecting owners of real property benefiting from transformation of perpetual usufruct right into ownership right against unjustified increase of annual fee. According to its provisions, when updating the amount of the annual fee for perpetual usufruct, the local government body will not be able to increase it above the rate specified in the Act, which is linked to the change in the value of residential units in a given province. The act also contains a provision protecting owners who want to pay the transformation fee as a one-off payment against reduction of the discount.

The deputies also decided today to pass the law granting the prime minister the right to present special awards for outstanding achievements in sports, science or culture.

The amendments to the Electoral Code adopted by the Parliament will streamline the process of appointing PECs and election officials. They also adjust the wording of the Election Code to the content of the Local Government Employees Act, stating that persons convicted of an intentional crime prosecuted by public indictment and sentenced to any punishment, and not only to imprisonment, shall not be eligible to vote.

The Sejm amended the Law on Higher Education and Science. The new legislation is intended to strengthen the university's statutory autonomy by allowing it to determine for itself who will perform the duties of the chancellor if the mandate expires.

The Sejm also passed a law on the termination of the Agreement between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Slovenia on the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments, drawn up in Ljubljana on 28 June 1996.

I Readings

The deputies have started their work on regulations introducing a mechanism of compensating public media for the loss of fees from the broadcasting licence fee from persons statutorily exempted from the obligation to pay it in 2018 and 2019. On behalf of the applicants, the draft was presented by MP Anita Czerwinska. In the discussion, a motion was presented to reject the draft in the first reading. In a block of votes, the Sejm rejected this motion and decided to refer the document for further work in the Committee on Culture and Media.

II readings

MPs in the second reading discussed the report of the Committee on Digitization, Innovation and New Technologies on the work on amending the Telecommunications Law. The proposed regulations are to Align legislation with EU requirements on the management of frequencies, radio equipment and frequency fees. As amendments were filed, the bill was referred back to committee for report.

Other work of the Sejm

The deputies listened to the government's information on the doubts arising from the investigation into the murder of the mayor of Gdansk, Pawel Adamowicz, and the functioning of the prison and justice system.

The questions of the MPs on current issues and the information of the government on the Polish energy policy filled the second day of the current session of the Sejm.

Upon a motion of the Nowoczesna club, the deputies were informed about the current Polish energy policy. The MPs were particularly interested in the development of renewable energy sources (RES) in the context of electricity prices. The information was presented by Tomasz Dąbrowski, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Energy.

As the representative of the government assured, in its energy policy Poland focuses on security, competitiveness and energy efficiency, as well as on limiting the impact of the energy sector on the environment. According to the energy ministry, own generation and raw material resources will remain the pillar of the Polish electricity balance for the next decadesThis allows for stable and reliable energy supply to consumers.

The Deputy Minister also stressed that the government does not want to close down the wind energy sector, however, works are underway to develop a catalog of good practices concerning, inter alia, installation of new wind power plants. - The government will pursue RES objectives all the time", T. Dąbrowski declared.

The MPs also had an opportunity to ask the government representatives questions on current issues. The parliamentarians were interested in such issues as the costs of mountain rescue service, construction of A2 freeway, functioning of the "Clean Air" programme and care for patients after hospital treatment. Answering one of the questions Deputy Infrastructure Minister Mikołaj Wild declared that the government is not going to charge motorists with tolls on the A2 freeway between Warsaw and Łódź.

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Photo: Rafał Zambrzycki/ Sejm