Niezalezna(.)pl: Yesterday, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland passed an amendment to the act on forests, which aims to strengthen the obligation of public authorities to care for forests owned by the State Treasury. "We will not hand over the management of the State Forests to EU bureaucrats!" - Michał Gzowski, spokesman for the State Forests, wrote in a Twitter post, thus informing about the completed parliamentary work in this regard.
It was a civic bill (proposed by an online campaign) amending the act on forests. Its justification stated that the amendments to the treaty provisions proposed by the EU authorities, aimed at depriving the Member States of exclusive competence in the field of forestry, threaten to undermine the Polish model of forest management.
The Act stipulates that the Republic of Poland retains the exclusive competence to develop and implement the policy related to the protection and management of forests owned by the State Treasury. It was pointed out that public authorities are obliged to shape forest policy aimed at preserving the national heritage of forests owned by the State Treasury, and not to take actions aimed at conferring competences on the European Union in the field of protection and management of forests owned by the State Treasury, and to oppose such activities.
The Act also provides that a resolution on Poland's position on the draft European Union legal act on forestry can only be adopted by the Sejm, by a 2/3 majority of votes in the presence of at least half of the statutory number of deputies.
"Great news straight from Wiejska! (Parliament's location.) Today, the Sejm adopted a bill in defense of Polish forests, supported by over half a million Poles!"
