Poland is currently experiencing a period of cohabitation. President Lech Kaczyński was elected in December 2005. He is from Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS), or Law and Justice party. In October 2007 there was an early election and a coalition of the Platforma Obywatelska (PO), Civic Platform, and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (PSL), Polish People’s (or Peasants’) Party, was returned with Donald Tusk of the PO as prime minister.

The cohabitation dynamics have sometimes been problematic. Most famously, in October 2008 President Kaczyński chartered a plane to go to an EU summit when Prime Minister had refused him a place on a government plane and, in effect, had tried to prevent him from going to the summit. There is a nice report here.

Anyway, the problems between the president and the PM are ongoing and so Warsaw Voice reports that a bill has been submitted to the Polish parliament that aims to regulate, or specify, the relationship between the president and prime minister, particularly as it relates to EU relations. According to Warsaw Voice, the bill “specifies that the government is responsible for deciding Polish policy on issues linked to EU membership, including economic and monetary union. The prime minister defines the details of the policy, which remains a state secret until it is presented at an EU summit or meeting”. Warsaw Voice also reports that “on the prime minister’s request, the government ‘authorizes a state body to take part in a meeting of an EU institution’”. In other words, the bill seems to be a direct attempt to make it more difficult for the president to be involved in or even aware of EU policy making and for the president to attend EU meetings. The government seems to deny any such interpretation.

According to the report, the details of which I have not been able to verify elsewhere, the bill has been submitted to the party caucuses and may be amended. There are also concerns that the constitutionality of the bill may be challenged and that it will have to be worded very carefully.