1.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
2.
Higher education
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Higher education, post-secondary education, or third level education is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completion of secondary education. Tertiary education at non-degree level is referred to as further education or continuing education as distinct from higher education. The right of access to education is mentioned in a number of international human rights instruments. In Europe, Article 2 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1950, in the days when few pupils progressed beyond primary education, the term higher education was often used to refer to secondary education, which can create some confusion. Higher education includes teaching, research, exacting applied work, within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level, and beyond that, graduate-level. The latter level of education is referred to as graduate school. Higher education is important to national economies, both as an industry, in its own right, and as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy. College educated workers have commanded a measurable wage premium and are less likely to become unemployed than less educated workers. However, the admission of so many students of average ability to higher education inevitably requires a decline in academic standards. There is some question as to whether advanced mathematical skills or talent are in fact necessary for such as history, English, philosophy. In contrast, the higher education and training that takes place at vocational universities and schools usually concentrates on practical applications. Requirements for admission to such high-level graduate programs is extremely competitive, in the United States, there are large differences in wages and employment associated with different degrees. Medical doctors and lawyers are generally the highest paid workers, and have among the lowest unemployment rates and it may encompass using insights to conceive, model and scale an appropriate solution to a problem or objective. Engineering disciplines include, aerospace, biological, civil, chemical, computer, electrical, industrial, examples are painting, sculpture, and drawing, etc. Higher educational institutions in these arts include Film schools and Art schools, Higher vocational education and training takes place at the non-university tertiary level. Such education combines teaching of practical skills and theoretical expertise. Higher education differs from other forms of education such as that offered by institutions of vocational education. Higher vocational education might be contrasted with education in a broader scientific field
3.
Polish United Workers' Party
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The Polish United Workers Party was the Communist party which governed the Polish Peoples Republic from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism, until 1989, the PUWP held dictatorial powers, and controlled an unwieldy bureaucracy, the military, the secret police, and the economy. Its main goal was to create a Communist society and help to propagate Communism all over the world, on paper, the party was organised on the basis of democratic centralism, which assumed a democratic appointment of authorities, making decisions, and managing its activity. Yet in fact, the key roles were played by the Central Committee, its Politburo and Secretariat, between sessions, party conferences of the regional, county, district and work committees were taking place. The smallest organizational unit of the PUWP was the Fundamental Party Organization, in the crowning time of the PUWPs development it consisted of over 3.5 million members. It was called the system of the state and economy management. In certain areas of the economy, e. g. in agriculture, the system was controlled with an approval of the PUWP and by its allied parties, the United Peoples Party. After martial law began, the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth was founded to organize these, the Polish United Workers Party was established at the unification congress of the Communist Polish Workers Party and Polish Socialist Party during meetings held from 15 to 21 December 1948. The unification was possible because the PPS activists who opposed unification had been forced out of the party, similarly, the members of the PPR who were accused of rightist – nationalistic deviation were expelled. Thus, for all intents and purposes, the PUWP was the PPR under a new name and it is believed that it was Joseph Stalin who put pressure on Bolesław Bierut and Jakub Berman to remove Gomułka and Spychalski as well as their followers from power in 1948. It is estimated that over 25% of socialists were removed from power or expelled from political life and he had served as President since 1944. After a new constitution abolished the presidency, Bierut took over as Prime Minister and he remained party leader until his death in 1956. Bierut oversaw the trials of many Polish wartime military leaders, such as General Stanisław Tatar, Bierut signed many of those death sentences. Bieruts death in Moscow in 1956 gave rise to speculation about poisoning or a suicide. In 1956, shortly after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the most well known members included Franciszek Jóźwiak, Wiktor Kłosiewicz, Zenon Nowak, Aleksander Zawadzki, Władysław Dworakowski, Hilary Chełchowski. The Puławian faction - the name comes from the Puławska Street in Warsaw, after the events of Poznań June, they successfully backed the candidature of Władysław Gomułka for First Secretary of party, thus imposing a major setback upon Natolinians. Among the most prominent members were Roman Zambrowski and Leon Kasman, both factions disappeared towards the end of the 1950s. Initially very popular for his reforms and seeking a Polish way to socialism, in the 1960s he supported persecution of the Roman Catholic Church and intellectuals
4.
Democratic Left Alliance
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Democratic Left Alliance is a social-democratic political party in Poland. It was formed in 1991 as an alliance of centre-left parties. It has always considered a post-communist party. It has no representation as of the 2015 parliamentary election. The coalition can be classified as left-wing, however, during the 1990s, it managed to attract voters from the pro-market and even right-wing camp. The main support for SLD came from state sector employees, retired people, former Polish United Workers Party and OPZZ members. The excommunists criticized the reforms, pointing to the high social costs. SdRP, SDU and some other socialist and social-democratic parties had formed the original Democratic Left Alliance as a coalition just prior to the nations first free elections in 1991. In 1999 the coalition became a party, but lost some members, at the time, the coalitions membership drew mostly from the former PUWP. An alliance between the SLD and the Polish Peoples Party ruled Poland in the years 1993–1997, after the elections, the coalition was joined by the Polish Peoples Party in forming a government and Leszek Miller became the Prime Minister. In March 2003, the PSL left the coalition, on 6 March 2004, Leszek Miller resigned as party leader and was replaced by Krzysztof Janik. On March 26 the Sejm speaker Marek Borowski, together with other high-ranking SLD officials, announced the creation of a new centre-left party, the Social Democratic Party of Poland. On the next day, Leszek Miller announced he would step down as Prime Minister on 2 May 2004, the day after Poland joined the European Union. In the 2004 European Parliament election, it only received 9% of the votes, giving it 5 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament, as part of the Party of European Socialists. In the later 2009 European election the Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union joint ticket received 12% of the vote and 7 MEPs were elected as part of the newly retitled Socialists & Democrats group. However the SLD could not avoid suffering a defeat in the 2005 parliamentary election. This gave the party 55 seats, barely a quarter of what it had had prior to the election and it also lost all of its Senators. pl. The coalition won a disappointing 13% in the 2007 parliamentary election and was dissolved soon after in April 2008, on 31 May 2008, Olejniczak was replaced by Grzegorz Napieralski as SLD leader
5.
Law and Justice
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Law and Justice, abbreviated to PiS, is a right-wing national-conservative, and Christian democratic political party in Poland. With 216 seats in the Sejm and 56 in the Senate, the party was founded in 2001 by the Kaczyński twins, Lech and Jarosław. It was formed part of the Solidarity Electoral Action, with the Christian democratic Centre Agreement forming the new partys core. The party won the 2005 election, while Lech Kaczyński won the presidency, Jarosław served as Prime Minister, before calling elections in 2007, in which the party came second to Civic Platform. Several leading members, including Lech Kaczyński, died in a crash in 2010. The party programme is dominated by the Kaczyńskis conservative and law, the party is solidarist and mildly eurosceptic. PiS is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe European political party, the current sixteen PiS MEPs sit, as well as three other people elected from the PiS register, in the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament. The AWS itself was created from an array of many small right-wing political parties. In the 2001 general election PiS gained 44 seats in the chamber of the Polish Parliament with 9. 5% of votes. In 2002, Lech Kaczyński was elected mayor of Warsaw and he handed the party leadership to his twin brother in 2003. In the 2005 general election, PiS took first place with 27. 0% of votes and it was almost universally expected that the two largest parties, PiS and Civic Platform, would form a coalition government. The putative coalition parties had an out, however, related to a fierce contest for the Polish presidency. In the end, Lech Kaczyński won the round of the presidential election on 23 October 2005 with 54. 0% of the vote, ahead of Donald Tusk. After the 2005 elections, Jarosław should have become Prime Minister, in July 2006 PiS formed a right-wing coalition government with the agrarian populist Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland and nationalist League of Polish Families, headed by Jarosław Kaczyński. Association with these parties, on the margins of Polish politics, when accusations of corruption and sexual harassment against Andrzej Lepper, the leader of Self Defense, surfaced, PiS chose to end the coalition and called for new elections. In the 2007 general election PiS managed to secure 32. 1% of votes, although an improvement over its showing from 2005, the results were nevertheless a defeat for the party, as Civic Platform gathered 41. 5%. The party won 166 out of 460 seats in the Sejm and 39 seats in Polands Senate, on 10 April 2010, its former leader Lech Kaczyński died in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash. The party won the 2015 parliamentary election, this time with an outright majority—something no Polish party had done since the fall of Communism, in the normal course of events, this should have made Jarosław Kaczyński prime minister for a second time
6.
Civic Platform
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Civic Platform is a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Poland. Civic Platform came to following the 2007 general election as the major coalition partner in Polands government. Tusk was re-elected as Prime Minister in the 2011 general election, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz led the party in the 2015 general election but was defeated by the Law and Justice party. On November 16,2015 Civic Platform government stepped down after exactly 8 years in power, in 2010 Civic Platform candidate Bronisław Komorowski was elected as President of Poland, but failed in running for re-election in 2015. PO is the second largest party in the Sejm, with 138 seats, Civic Platform is a member of the European Peoples Party. The party was formed in 2001 as a split from Solidarity Electoral Action, under the leadership of Andrzej Olechowski and Maciej Płażyński, in the 2001 general election, PO emerged as the largest opposition party, behind the ruling centre-left party Democratic Left Alliance. PO remained the second-largest party at the 2005 general election, but this time behind the national-conservative party Law, in 2007, Civic Platform overtook PiS, now established as the two dominant parties, and formed a coalition government with the Polish Peoples Party. Following the Smolensk disaster of April 2010, Bronisław Komorowski became the first President from PO in the 2010 presidential election, since its creation, the party has shown stronger electoral performances in the west and north of Poland. The Civic Platform was founded in 2001 as a split from existing parties, founders Andrzej Olechowski, Maciej Płażyński, and Donald Tusk were sometimes jokingly called the Three Tenors by Polish media and commentators. Olechowski and Płażyński left the party during the 2001–2005 parliamentary term, leaving Tusk as the remaining founder. I can say that I participated in a number of discussions, above all, I had to convince Olechowski and Paweł Piskorski to an idea, I also talked to Donald Tusk, said Czempiński. In the 2001 general election the party secured 12. 6% of the vote and 58 deputies in the Sejm, in 2005, PO led all opinion polls with 26% to 30% of public support. However, in the 2005 general election, in which it was led by Jan Rokita, PO polled only 24. 1% and unexpectedly came second to the 27% garnered by Law and Justice. A centre-right coalition of PO and PiS was deemed most likely to form a government after the election, yet the putative coalition parties had a falling out in the wake of the fiercely contested Polish presidential election of 2005. Lech Kaczyński won the round of the presidential election on 23 October 2005 with 54% of the vote, ahead of Tusk. Due to the demands of PiS for control of all the armed ministries, instead, PiS formed a coalition government with the support of the League of Polish Families and Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland. PO became the opposition to this PiS-led coalition government, the PiS-led coalition fell apart in 2007 amid corruption scandal with Andrzej Lepper and Tomasz Lipiec and internal leadership disputes. These events led to the new elections in 2007, in the 21 October 2007 parliamentary election, PO won 41. 51% of the popular vote and 209 out of 460 seats in the Sejm and 60 out of 100 seats in the Senate of Poland
7.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Poland)
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It is considered to be one of the most important offices of state. The head of the ministry is a secretary of state. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible primarily for maintaining good, in doing so it is required to act primarily as a representative of the Polish people. To this end all Polish diplomatic missions around the world are subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministry is considered to be one of Polands most important, with the minister of foreign affairs ranking amongst the most influential people in Polish politics. This position is reserved for seasoned, professional politicians, and is thought to require a great deal of tact and intellect. However, the ministry began to fulfil its ascribed duties truly only after the fall of the Regency Council, adoption of the Treaty of Versailles, the ministry was then, until 1939, located in central Warsaw, with its seat in the Brühl Palace on Piłsudski Square. During this period Count Edward Raczyński, a man who was later to become President of the government in exile, was the minister responsible, the departments for regional affairs exist to monitor the internal situation and politics of the countries within the area of any one specific departments competence. They coordinate development of relations, initiate the related undertakings. These departments oversee the issue of Poland’s participation in the structures of multilateral cooperation with any relevant partner states and they are responsible for the substantive activity of relevant Polish diplomatic missions abroad
8.
Ministry of Infrastructure (Poland)
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The Ministry of Infrastructure was an agency of the government of Poland. The ministry was headquartered in Warsaw, following the 2007 election of Civic Platform under Donald Tusk, the ministry was again reorganized into the Ministry of Infrastructure. Following the reelection of Tusk in the 2011 parliamentary elections, the Council of Ministers moved to abolish the Infrastructure Ministry on 21 November,2011 and it was replaced by the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy, and the Ministry of Administration and Digitization. State Commission on Aircraft Accidents Investigation Ministry of Infrastructure Ministry of Infrastructure
9.
Council of Ministers (Poland)
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The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland is the collective executive decision-making body of the Polish government. The cabinet consists of the Prime Minister, also known as the President of the Council of Ministers, the Deputy Prime Minister, who acts as a vice-president of the council, the current competences and procedures of the cabinet are described between Articles 146 to 162 of the constitution. The process of forming the council of ministers begins with the nomination of the minister by the President of Poland. The prime minister will then propose the composition of the cabinet, furthermore, the president is forbidden to select a different cabinet composition than the one already selected by the prime minister. Following their nomination, all members of the take the oath of office within the Column Room of the Presidential Palace. Within fourteen days of its appointment, the cabinet, headed by the minister, is obligated to submit an agenda to the Sejm together with a vote of confidence. An absolute majority of votes in the presence of at least half of all Sejm deputies is required to approve of the cabinet, which the president will then accept and administer their oaths of office. Should a vote of confidence fail again, the process of nomination is handed back to the presidency, who must again appoint a prime minister, who will then nominate other members of the cabinet. If the vote of confidence fails a third time, the president is obliged to shorten the Sejms term of office, the council of ministers is headed by the prime minister, known also as the President of the Council of Ministers. The prime minister directs the activities and acts as its representative. Furthermore, the prime minister ensures the implementation of the policies, coordinates and controls the work of his or her ministers. The prime minister may also be assisted by a deputy prime minister, both the prime minister and deputy prime minister can discharge the functions of a minister. The deputy prime ministers position is normally offered to representatives of the junior coalition partner. Deputy prime ministers also take on other ministerial positions, the rest of the cabinet is composed of ministers, whose tasks and governmental administrative portfolios are selected and organized by the prime minister. Cabinet ministers may originate from the Sejm and Senat, Ministers may also be selected from outside of the legislature. First are the department ministers, who exercise authority and responsibility within the governments administration, including ministries, subordinate departments. Regulations by any member of the council of ministers can be overruled by the cabinet upon a motion by the prime minister, the premier is also empowered to reshuffle or remove members from the cabinet. The style of the government and the roles of its ministers are not constitutionally mandated, the constitution entrusts the cabinet to craft and implement the most important regulations and policies of the state
