Legal Eye: Budgetary battles

"The President of the Republic shall sign the Budget as submitted to him by the Marshall of the Sejm within 7 days of receipt thereof…"

Art 224(1) Polish Constitution

Notice the word "shall"? Once adopted by the Sejm and presented to the President for signature, the President is obligated to sign the budget into law in the form presented.

Unlike other laws adopted by the Sejm and presented for his signature, the President is powerless to refer the budget back to the Sejm for reconsideration. At best, the President may delay signing the budget by first seeking the opinion of the Constitutional Tribunal on whether the budget as presented conforms to the Constitution. Only in the rare event the budget is determined to be unconstitutional may the President avoid signing a budget.

For the most part, the role of the President in adopting of the budget is entirely ceremonial in nature, with the real power held by the Council of Ministers and Sejm.

Dissolving the government

In contrast to the President's lack of power vis-a-vis rejecting the budget once approved by the Sejm and presented for his signature, the President wields tremendous power over the Sejm in the event no budget is adopted and presented for his signature.

In particular, the Constitution authorizes the President to dissolve the Sejm and call for early elections if the Sejm has not approved and presented a draft budget for his signature within a certain time frame. Specifically, Article 225 states: "If, after four months from the day of submission of the draft Budget to the Sejm, it has not been adopted or presented to the President of the Republic for signature, the President may, within the following 14 days, order the shortening of the Sejm's term of office."

Whereas the President's role in signing the budget into law is relegated to the largely ceremonial act of rubber stamping the budget as presented, the office of the Presidency retains the power to bring down an entire government. Moreover, the exercise of such power is solely at the discretion of the President.

Who holds the power?

The initial draft budget is prepared by the Council of Ministers, which then submits the draft to the full Sejm for approval. The Sejm, or more particularly, the Senate, may introduce and approve amendments to the draft budget over the objections of the Council of Ministers.

The Senate may approve or reject amendments proposed by the Sejm, in addition to making its own amendments. If the Senate introduces its own amendments, the budget will go back to the Sejm for reconsideration. Once all amendments are voted on and approved, the budget is then sent to the President for his/her signature.

Tick, tick, tick….

As this article goes to press, the Senate has still not voted on amendments to the draft budget proposed by the Sejm, let alone its own amendments. Time is quickly running out for the Senate and Sejm to adopt the budget.

According to President Kaczyński's calculations, if the budget is not approved and sent to him by February 1, he will be entitled to dissolve the government and call for new elections, since he believes it will mark the end of the four-month period by which the government has to submit the budget to the President for signature. Beginning February 1 the tables will be turned, with the President holding the future of the current government in his hands.

Paul Fogo is a senior attorney with Miller, Canfield, W. Babicki & Partners