A league of its own?

Poland's capital could become the country's 17th voivodship. The initiative is under discussion between the authorities of the Mazowieckie voivodship, of which Warsaw is currently part, and the Ministry of Regional Development.

The motivation for removing Warsaw from the Mazowieckie voivodship is financial. The capital city's high GDP (zł.130.1 million in 2005) raises the GDP of the entire voivodship (zł.210.2 million in 2005). Only those voivodships which have a GDP lower than 75 percent of the EU average can apply for EU funds.

"Reforming Mazowieckie voivodship without Warsaw would help the region to develop," said Izabela Milewska, an EU funds specialist and director of promotion and marketing at the Agency for Development of Mazovia. "Warsaw has the largest projects and wins all applications for EU funds. Projects in the poorer cities have slim chances to gain EU money when competing with Warsaw, whose GDP raises the overall GDP of the Mazowieckie voivodship. The rest of the region is really poor. The voivodship without Warsaw would get more EU funds," Milewska told WBJ.

"Changing it now, at the beginning of the new EU funding cycle, will destroy the whole operational program for the Mazowieckie voivodship for 2007-2013 budget. It would be best to change it before the next budget, from 2014-2020," added Milewska.

The creation of a Warsaw voivodship would require an amendment to the law on territorial division be drawn up and passed by government and parliament. The administrative district could either function as a normal Polish voivodship, containing city, gmina, and voivodship authorities, or like French cities, where the City Council is also Voivodship Council.

A number of unanswered questions remain about how the Warsaw voivodship would be structured. The main discussion is about borders and which gminas should belong to it.

Capital wealth

GDP per capita in voivodships, 2005

(percent of the Polish average), 100 = zł.25,800

Warsaw           298.8

Mazowieckie

(including Warsaw)      158.4

Mazowieckie

(not including Warsaw)            88.3

Silesia 107.9

Wielkopolskie 106.9

Dolnoœlšskie    103.3

Poland 100

Pomorskie       99

Zachodniopomorskie   93

Łódzkie           91.5

Lubuskie          90

Kujawsko-Pomorskie  88

Małopolskie     82.5

Opolskie          82

Warmińœko-Mazurskie            76.5

Œwiętokrzyskie 74

Podlaskie         73

Podkarpackie 69.5

Lubelskie         68.3