Pursuant to a Regulation of the Council of Ministers dated 9th May 2016, the Vice Minister of the Environment and Chief National Geologist, Prof. Mariusz Orion Jędrysek Ph.D., has been appointed as the government’s spokesperson for National Raw Materials Policy. The Chief National Geologist will lead and coordinate the work of an Interdepartmental Team for National Raw Materials Policy, which is an auxiliary body of the Council of Ministers and shall be responsible for preparing the national raw materials policy and providing the instruments to ensure its implementation.

On 23 September, a meeting of the Extraordinary Committee on Energy and Natural Resources was held at the Sejm, during which the Undersecretary of State, Chief National Geologist, M. Brodziński presented an update on concessions granted, and the system for protecting strategic energy mineral deposits envisaged in the upcoming “White Paper on Mineral Deposit Protection”.

The government bill on the amendment of acts governing the conditions for access to certain professions (third tranche of deregulation) stipulates a series of changes and facilitating measures for obtaining, among others, geological licences and mining professions. On 7 August 2015, the bill was handed over to the President of the Republic of Poland for signature.

We have recently pointed out that the changes to the Geological and Mining Law introduced by the amendment of 11 July 2014 entailed the need for new implementing acts to be issued and for some of the existing implementing acts to be revised. After several months, the legislative process was finalised for 4 implementing acts concerning the delivery of samples and geological data, drafting of geological documentation, including the geological and investment documentation of a hydrocarbon deposit and geological works programmes.

A bill amending the act on spatial planning and development and some other acts (JoL No. 205) is currently undergoing the legislative process. The primary objective of the new legislation is to introduce the principles of reasonable space management, including limitations on the allocation of land for housing development. This is expected, though indirectly, to improve the security of planned investments. Some of the proposed changes will also affect the conduct of activity being subject to concessions in accordance with the Geological and Mining Law (“GML”).

The implications of the amendment of regulations concerning the principles and time limits for the delivery of geological information pursuant to Article 82 of the Geological and Mining Law (GML) with respect to the holders of concessions granted before 31 December 2014 are an interesting question to examine.

Mining plant operations plan is the basic document serving as the grounds for the operations of mining plant. The amendment of the Geological and Mining Law (further: GML) of July 2014 lifted the requirement for heads of commune (mayors or city presidents) to issue opinions on operation plans as part of the procedure conducted to approve such plans by a mining supervision authority. It does not mean, however, that asking for the opinions of local government authorities has been completely done away with. The opinion is still required, but currently it must be submitted at the stage before filing the application for the approval of an operations plan and it should be enclosed by entrepreneurs as an appendix to the application.

The amendment of the Geological and Mining Law of 11 July 2014 also introduced certain changes to the regulations concerning mining usufruct. It is worth reminding that, under the Polish legal system governing the activities related to prospecting, exploration and production, the fact that an entrepreneur is the holder of a concession is not tantamount to their ability to carry out works in the subsurface. For the works to be initiated, it is also necessary to sign a mining usufruct agreement in the form of a civil law contract concluded with the State Treasury.

Directive no. 2000/60/EC – the so-called Water Framework Directive (WFD) – is a legal act establishing the framework for the water policy of the European Union, according to which Member States have been obliged to prevent the deterioration of the condition of waters and to ensure the good condition of waters. WFD was implemented into the Polish legal system through the provisions of the Water Law (the Act of 18 July 2001). According to the Water Law, the management of water resources takes place on the basis of river basin management plans (RBMP), which contain information about the environmental objectives set for specific waters.

The government bill on the amendment of acts governing the conditions for access to certain professions (third tranche of deregulation) stipulates a series of changes and facilitating measures for obtaining, among others, geological qualifications.