Page 151 - Секретаријат за законодавство

The rules of submission of bills executing EU law obligations to the
Sejm are laid down in the Law of 11 March 2004 on cooperation of
the Council of Ministers with the Sejm and the Senate in matters con-
cerning membership in the European Union. Under Article 11 of that
law, the government is required to submit, no later than three months
before the deadline resulting from EU law expires, a bill implementing
the EU legislation. If that deadline is longer than six months, it should
be submitted Þve months before the expiry of the deadline.
The parliamentary stage of the procedure is regulated in the Standing
Orders of the Sejm and in the Standing Orders of the Senat. These
acts provide for several requirements which are designed to ensure the
correct and timely implementation of EU law.

In the explanatory memorandum of each bill its authors must include a
declaration about compliance with the law of the European Union or a
declaration that the subject of the bill is not covered by the law of the
European Union.

One of the particularities of the law-making system in Poland was that
a governmental body was empowered to exercise scrutiny over activ-
ities of the Legislature with regard to compliance with EU law. In the
course of the legislative procedure involving the examination of bills by
committees of the Sejm, it was obligatory to seek at every stage of the
proceedings the opinion of MFA on conformity with EU law of amend-
ments and motions submitted in the Þrst and second reading as well as
amendments proposed by the Senate. This opinion was attached to a
committee report. Since 1 January 2015 this obligation is no longer in
force. Now the MFA opinion on compliance may optionally be request-
ed by the chairman of the relevant committee of the Sejm.

The bills whose aim is to implement EU law can undergo a fast-track
procedure. They can be referred to the European Committee of the
Sejm and that Committee establishes a timetable of work on that bill.
This option was widely used in the pre-accession time. The European
Committee of the Sejm was then responsible for the vast majority of
bills implementing EU law.

The Standing Orders also provide for certain rules aimed at restricting
the possibility of introducing amendments to those bills, accelerating

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