Is it worth taking part in public consultations on draft laws?
It's worth it 😊
Below are a few words explaining what public consultations are, why they are important and whether you can take part in them.
What are public consultations on draft laws?
Public consultations are a mandatory element legislative process, i.e. the process that ends with the adoption of a bill by the Parliament.
This element of the legislative process is mandatory only for government bills. Government bills are those bills that are created in the relevant ministries, then submitted to the Council of Ministers for consideration and, after acceptance by the Council of Ministers, are presented to the Sejm.
Parliamentary bills, i.e. those in which a group of MPs applies to the Sejm to adopt certain provisions, are not subject to public consultation.
A government project begins with work in a given ministry. For example, the Minister of Finance sees the need to tighten the CIT tax, and assigns work to the appropriate department. After the project receives the approval of the Ministry of Finance management, the legislative process begins. The first element of this process is public consultations. The project is published on the Government Legislative Centre website and on the website of the ministry itself, along with a consultation distribution list and an indication of the consultation end date and an e-mail address for submitting comments.
Are the results of public consultations binding on Ministers?
No, they are not legally binding. The Minister can disregard the comments received, maintaining his position.
Of course, comments are not always justified. However, if they are justified, then the Minister who does not take them into account takes on political risk. This risk may materialize already at the stage of inter-ministerial consultations of the project or at the stage of government work, where the Minister may have to explain to the Council of Ministers the comments received and not taken into account.
Who are public consultations addressed to?
To everyone.
Draft laws are sent directly by ministries to those organizations that have expressed an interest in being included on the list of entities participating in public consultations. At least that is how it usually works in the Ministry of Finance. It is usually around 40 entities.
However, public consultations are open to everyone.
The draft bill is published here: https://legislacja.gov.pl/ . An announcement about public consultation is published together with the project.
Everyone, and I really mean everyone, has the right to take part in public consultations on a given bill.
How to participate in public consultations
In the distribution list, i.e. the letter sending the bill for public consultation, the Minister indicates:
- how long does public consultation last
- how to send your comments
The duration of the consultation is very important; after the deadline, the Minister will not treat the comments received as public consultation comments, so for example, these comments will not be included in the final table, nor will they be published on the RCL website.
In terms of form, the Minister very often requires that comments be sent in an appropriate table. This is not mandatory, but it makes it easier for officials to work on the comments. Officials usually do not have much time to consider the comments, so it is worth making it easier for officials to work on your comments, perhaps thanks to this the comments will be analyzed more carefully.
Why participate in public consultations?
Okay, but then why take part in it? public consultations?
Of course, this is not an obligation, it is the right of each of us to express our opinion on a draft law that may affect us. Nothing about us without us, in a more modern version.
Moreover, it is not only the right to express one's opinion on the project, but also an opportunity to have a real influence on its content.
Ok, I wrote above that the comments are not binding, so where does this possibility of real influence on the project come from?
There are two reasons:
- Nobody wants to release legal junk
If your comments are substantive, contain specific and constructive proposals and are justified from the ministry's point of view, there is a good chance that your comments will be taken into account.
It happened that we changed the draft regulations literally after a single e-mail from Kowalski, who happened to point out something that no one else had noticed.
The minister has no interest in releasing a weak draft. The poor quality of drafts usually results from haste in its creation or from political decisions, more important than substantive correctness. Most often, these political decisions increase the haste. However, there is no ill will in the style of: let's release a flawed regulation because we hate taxpayers.
Therefore, valuable attention will be simply valuable for the ministry itself.
- Pressure on the Minister
The comments from the public consultations are available online, everyone can review the number and content of the comments. For example, here are the comments from the consultation on the draft amendment to the Local Taxes and Fees Act: https://legislacja.gov.pl/projekt/12386262/katalog/13064860#13064860
Journalists, opposition politicians, political rivals from their own camp, other ministers who do not feel any love for the Minister who submitted the motion – they all see the comments and can arm themselves with powerful ammunition to criticize the project and the Minister himself.
If the Minister automatically ignores the comments, he or she takes on the political risk of passing a piece of crap legislation. If those who submitted the comments are right, the consequences for the Minister could be very serious.
This could be seen with the Polish Deal, where there were many comments, they were not listened to and in fact after the regulations came into force there was legal chaos. It ended with the resignation of the Minister of Finance and the Deputy Minister of Finance responsible for the Polish Deal project.
Sending comments builds pressure on the Minister if the project is actually flawed.
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If you need to take part in public consultations and don't know how to do it, please contact me.
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I encourage you to contact me.
Zbigniew Makowski
Tax advisor
