During the conference, Minister Mariusz Kamiński recalled that the new procedures were based on crisis experiences related to pandemics, the arrival of refugees from Ukraine or threats related to atmospheric situations such as fires, hurricanes and floods. He also informed that the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security and Defence Affairs had discussed the bill at the meetings.

The Head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration pointed out that the presented law is an essential complement to the adopted law on the defence of the Homeland.

The draft law on civil protection and the state of natural disaster focuses on issues related to crisis management, with the situation of civilians in extreme cases,

said the Minister. 

Deputy Prime Minister, Jarosław Kaczyński, referred to the work on the draft law.

While preparing this act, we considered the dangers characteristic of the present difficult time, that is, what is happening in Ukraine and what has already happened before on the Polish border with Belarus,

he explained.

The Chairman of the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security and Defence Affairs recalled that the law should be applied in such a way that dangers could be identified as soon as possible and adequately countered.

Structure and financing of the new system

The Head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration addressed the changes concerning the functioning of the Government Crisis Management Team (Polish abbrev. RZZK).

We want the Government Crisis Management Team to be the decision-making team in the most serious situations to concentrate the decision-making and executive centre in one place,

he announced.

Following the proposed regulations, the RZZK will be headed by the Prime Minister, with the Minister of the Interior and Administration as his deputy. If crises cover a smaller area, the Minister of the Interior and Administration and voivodes respectively will take the actions.

Minister Mariusz Kamiński informed about creating the Civil Protection Fund, from which civil protection tasks will be financed.

The law defines these funds as 0.1 of our country's GDP, which currently means about 3 billion PLN. It will be a non-expiring fund, and funds not used in a given year will be transferred to the next year. These are important instruments for effective action,

he said.  

Funds from the Fund will be divided, half will be at the disposal of the Head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration and half - to voivodes. They can be used, among others, for activities related to providing immediate aid (support for victims of natural disasters) and investments related to safety infrastructure.

Under the Civil Protection Fund, money will also go to the State Medical Rescue system. Based on the resources of the Voluntary Fire Service, a corps of paramedics (approximately 10 000 rescuers) will be created to assist in local communities. Over 2.8 thousand ambulances will be obtained for Polish communes within a few years.

Minister Mariusz Kamiński also announced that aid payments to victims of natural disasters would be increased. The amount will increase from 6 thousand PLN to 10 thousand PLN.

We are also increasing support for the reconstruction of houses, reconstruction of real estate, from 200 thousand PLN, as it is now, to 300 thousand PLN. This money will be the responsibility of the voivode,

emphasised the Head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration.

The act also envisages the introduction of obligatory first-aid courses for the youth of secondary schools, conducted by rescuers, and the modernisation of the Emergency Notification System (phone number 112).

Experience-based on solutions

Deputy Minister Maciej Wąsik emphasised that the prepared solutions are based on the daily experience of people who deal with crises. These are the experiences of voivodes, the State Fire Service, the Voluntary Fire Service and local government officials.

With this law, we want to simplify bureaucratic procedures. We are eliminating the obligation of crisis management plans from the national to the municipality level. Instead, we propose to create an IT system that will inventory all civil protection resources. It will make it possible to assess the state of preparedness of a given region for a crisis situation,

the Deputy Minister announced

The Secretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior and Administration also said that the draft law on civil protection defines states of state preparedness. It provides for three states: state of emergency, state of threat and state of natural disaster.

Deputy Minister Maciej Wąsik also spoke about other changes contained in the presented bill. These include the transformation of the civil protection system in wartime (time "W") into a civil protection system and the creation of the National Rescue System, which will replace the currently operating National Rescue and Firefighting System (Polish abbrev. KSRG).

The draft law on civil protection and on the state of natural disaster was submitted to the list of legislative and programme works of the Council of Ministers.